Why & How You Can Make Ethical Decisions During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Holly Flickinger

As countries around the world are shutting down, we are all faced with serious ethical questions about what we all should be obliged to do for others.  With that being said, why do we all have an ethical obligation to make decisions for the greater good in times of crisis? The answer seems simple to me, and that’s because if we act selfishly people will die.  And that’s that.  

Social media campaigns beg people to #stayhome, #staythefuckhome, and #flattenthecurve, and that they should.  Flattening the curve slows the spread of the virus, prevents an overload of severe cases, and alleviates the tremendous pressure on the public health care system.  It also ensures we preserve life as well as possible, and life offers benefit to society and our economies.  

The concept is simple, but it’s harder for people to live in a way they are unaccustomed to which requires them to think of others first, while also remembering the importance of their personal safety and health.  A favorite graphic of mine so far in this crisis has been:

We’ve all seen the images of America’s youth storming Daytona Beach in Florida for spring break without a care in the world.  Most recently, DC’s famous fish market, ‘The Wharf’, had to be shut down after a Saturday packed with visitors disobeying orders to socially distance.  A similar, yet probably less dramatic, scene played out in Oslo’s bars before being shut down by the mayor.  

It’s clear that some have a harder time making ethical decisions than others.  Sometimes this might be due to sheer ignorance, other times it may be rooted in a spirit of individualism, and other times it might be just sheerly poor decision making.  Regardless, we can all be empowered to make better, ethical decisions.  

One way we can do this is by referring to the ethical reflections material presented to our class, MACCOMM 5210, by Gry Espedal and Stephen Sirris.  In their video lecture, they demonstrated the process for making a decision for an ethical dilemma Gry faced related to Coronavirus circumstances.  The dilemma was, 'should she stay at home with her nuclear family or go visit her elderly father who was alone in another district?'  

The process for ethical reflection looks something like this:

1. Enter into a conversation led by a mediator or advisor of sorts (In this case, the advisor was Stephen.)
2. Have the owner of the dilemma present their case (In this case, Gry presented her story.)
3. Next, the advisor guides the problem-owner through a series of questions aimed at finding the best solution to the dilemma. (In this case, Stephen led Gry through a series of questions that helped Gry ‘search her soul’ for the right answers.

Questions that may be helpful are:
*Which alternative  choices do you have for this problem?
*What factors validate choice A or B?  

4. Finally, with the help of the advisor, the problem-owner ranks the arguments and solutions before coming to a conclusion. 

In this case, Gry made the choice to follow the rules and regulations required of her by Oslo Kommune, which asked her to stay at home.  

It’s also highly advised that both the problem-owner and advisor take notes and use graphic organizers to workout this problem on paper.  Visualization generally assists the process of decision making.

Similar to Gry’s dilemma, we all face similar dilemmas in this challenging time.  By following the guidelines presented by ethical reflection we can help ourselves and our loved ones make better decisions and ultimately, save lives.  That’s a lot of power.