Details — Karl W. Weiss '87 Faculty Lecture Series — January 22
| Date: 1/22 | Time: 7 pm |
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Steven Farrelly-Jackson, associate professor of philosophy and religious studies, will discuss “When Bioethics Meets Disaster” in the Campus Center, Room 301/302, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, January 22. The 21st century has witnessed many natural disasters. Some were widely publicized in America – the Asian Tsunami (2004), Hurricane Katrina (2005), the Haiti earthquake (2010), Hurricane Maria (2017) – some less so, like Cyclone Nargis or the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. Many scientists argue that with climate change, the risk of major disasters will increase, with heatwaves becoming hotter, storms stronger, and flooding more destructive. Complex ethical and political questions arise both for how we prepare for disasters and for how we respond to them. This talk concentrates on the ethics of disaster response and discusses some key challenges posed for humanitarian organizations and workers as they struggle to meet overwhelming humanitarian needs with insufficient resources in the midst of immense destruction and social upheaval. An underlying question throughout is whether the idealized bioethical principles that frame the main international response protocols are adequate in the chaotic human circumstances of major disasters.