Obligation, Endemic Survival & the Complexity of Moral Judgement

 This is a bioethical investigation into the nature of the endemic crisis, its survival, and the social construction of moral obligation during the Ebola crisis in Liberia, West Africa. The 2014 outbreak in West Africa was the most considerable, most severe, and most complex Ebola epidemic thus far. At the close of the crisis in Liberia, six thousand infected persons survived unexpectedly. The ethics of Ebola and survival is exceptionally complicated and requires a complex theoretical explanation. While a categorical analysis of ethical theory cannot cover the full scope of this moral dilemma, a single concept carried over a range of models does; and, that concept is known as moral obligation. Exploring the obligation of others toward Ebola survivors helps locate, justify, and analyze the fear-based system of morality that arose from the world’s most severe endemic crisis. Examining the obligations of government, community, individuals, and foreign research initiatives toward the survivors of the West African Ebola endemic in Monrovia, this article explores the varying moralities of endemic crisis culture as it examines the complexity of judgment related to social obligation.