course material

1. (Mt) – Disaster Managemnt Ethical and Legal Considerations in Disasters
Discussion
Culture is the values, morals and beliefs of a society. Stemming from the society’s culture is
their ethics that are justifiable by their culture. Their ethics drives societies laws, policies
and governance. Cultural ethics are the identity of a community. It is important that the
international and humanitarian responders that provide assistance to communities after
disaster to understand and value the impacted communities cultural ethics. It is important
because to give effective and successful aid to an impacted population, a responder will
have to understand basic cultural concepts. For example, in eastern Africa during the Ebola
crisis, health responders received a lot of pushback and distrust from the impacted
community because public health measures did not align with the community’s culture. As
part of both the Christian and Muslim community, it was tradition to wash the dead and
prepare them for burial. Public health workers found that during this ceremony, the
community was coming in direct contact with the patient who died from Ebola. Therefore
they were becoming infected. The international aid workers tried to explain the dangers of
the disease and how it was safer to remove the dead in a body bag but the community
would not listen. Their beliefs of how to properly bury their dead run so deep that they
wouldn’t consider any other ritual. Health officials reached out to community religious
leaders for assistance and advice, which ultimately the religious found historical context in
their holy book of how alternatively to bury a body with a communicable disease by praying
over it and not washing the body. With this advice, new measures were taken by the African
governments and humanitarian organization to safely bury a body with respect to the
community’s culture (Maxmen, 2015). By the humanitarian responders actively seeking out
measures that respected the cultural ethics of the community but still provided the
assistance necessary for preventing the spread of disease, many lives are saved. That is why
it is important to understand and value the cultural ethics of a community as they relate to
humanitarian/international disasters. Similarly, it is important that responders conduct
themselves ethically as well because it will establish a trusting relationship between the
international/humanitarian responders and the impacted community. From the example
given above, the responders were entering impacted community in full HAZMAT suits
treating the situation only as a health issue (Maxmen, 2015). The responders were
delivering ebola education packets and telling the community of what to-do and not to-do.
There was little to no communication of the community’s culture taken into account of

2. delivering the assistance. This lack of communication as well as few responders to handle
the amount of patient’s and a history of distrust with the government lead to conspiracy
theories that the responders and doctors were killing the patients and stealing their organs
(Maxmen, 2015). By addressing this distrust, humanitarian aid organizations received help
from religious leaders who advised the responders how to be more respectful. This lead to
responders to allow ceremony burials with the family present to pray but at a distance to
prevent the spread of disease (Maxmen, 2015). By addressing the culture differences and
changing the way humanitarian responders provided aid, trust was able to build between
the responders and the impacted community so assistance could be given more efficiently
and successfully. To ensure successful assistance to an impacted community, resources
have to be distributed ethically as well. For example, there are cultures that women cannot
receive medical treatment unless it is from a female provider. In this case, humanitarian
organizations will need to ensure they have a female health provider on staff, preferably
enough female health providers to meet the capacity of females in the impacted community
(Lensu, 2003). Another example would be to distribute food that aligns with their cultural
needs, such as many Muslims do not eat pork therefore if humanitarian providers
distributed pork to the population then many individuals would find themselves in a “starve
or violate their culture” predicament. This would prove the humanitarian aid unsuccessful
in helping the impacted community (Lensu, 2003). For humanitarian and international
assistance to be effective and successful, it is absolutely critical that responders understand
the cultural ethics of the impacted community and conduct their assistance that is
respectful to the community. References: Lensu, Maria. (2003). Respect for culture and
customs in international humanitarian assistance. Implications for principles and policy.
Retrieved from: http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2894/1/U615845.pdf Maxmen, Amy. (January
2015). How the fight against Ebola tested a culture’s traditions. National Geographic.
Retrieved from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150130-ebola-
virus-outbreak-epidemicsierra-leone-funerals/ The simple definition of culture is that it is
the way of life of a group of people. It defines their behavior, their beliefs, and their values.
With humanitarian aid, responders and relief workers potentially face environments where
ethical guidelines may be different or lacking (Hunt, 2008). It is important that
humanitarian responders and relief workers understand these cultural differences as it can
pose as a hurdle for how care is provided. Hunt (2008) presented the issue of how different
cultural understandings of health, illness, and death may differ. These differences may arise
in what is considered to be the role of traditional healers (Hunt, 2008). These cultural
values hold significant importance to the local population but compared to the modern
thinking a humanitarian worker may have, an ethical dilemma may arise on the debate of
what would be considered appropriate care. Understanding the difference in culture would
better allow a humanitarian worker to provide care that is suitable for the patient. While
certain forms of modern medicine may be more beneficial, the patient should be allowed
the opportunity to choose a form of care that does not go against their beliefs. Responders
must conduct themselves in an ethical manner, especially in situations where resources
may be limited. Limited resources should be allocated to maximize the health benefits of the
population (Brock & Wikler (2006). While available resources may greatly improve the life

3. of one, it also has the potential to improve the lives of many. Jonsen (n.d.) mentions a
“utilitarian rule” which favors the “greater good of the greater number rather than the
particular good of the patient at hand” which justifies the greater necessity of the
population over the necessity of one. In a sense, this means that a responder should not
choose who receives care but rather make a decision on how to use the resources to benefit
the population. Brock, D.W. & Wikler, D. (2006). Ethical issues in resource allocation,
research, and new product development. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Hunt, M.R. (2008). Ethics beyond borders: How
health professionals experience ethics in humanitarian assistance and development work.
Developing World Bioethics, 8(2): 59-69. Jonsen, A.R. (n.d.) Resource allocation. UW
Medicine: Department of Bioethics and Humanities. Retrieved from
https://depts.washington.edu/bhdept/ethics-medicine/ bioethics-topics/detail/78