Abstract
This article examines the 2015 MERS outbreak in South Korea in terms of the ethics of public health emergencies. A public health emergency is defined as a severe, sudden, and unpredictable threat to public health, which poses a substantial risk to normal social functioning. In response to public health emergencies legal rights may be suspended and individual liberties may be violated. Among the many ethical principles that are relevant in public health emergencies are protecting the public from harm, justice and fairness, liberty and respect, reciprocity, and duty to treat. The 2015 MERS outbreak raised several ethical issues, including the following, which are discussed in this article: 1) Ethical deliberation in preparing for public health emergencies, 2) balancing privacy and transparency, 3) respecting individual liberty in quarantine, and 4) ensuring that the duty to treat is respected.
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