One of NEAC’s main statutory functions is to advise the Minister of Health on ethical issues of national significance regarding health and disability. The Committee believes that minimising harm from any pandemic, minimising inequalities in the impact of any pandemic, and getting through any pandemic together are issues of this sort.
Getting Through Together considers ethical issues in a pandemic:
- Section one introduces the statement of ethical values and its purpose and then describes how this statement could be used.
- Section two outlines two cases, one in an urban community and one in a hospital, to explore the challenges we may face when planning for, and responding to, a pandemic.
- Section three describes in a range of settings why we think the shared values identified in the statement are important.
NEAC hopes that a wide range of people, including health professionals, planners, policy makers and members of the public and business community, can use Getting Through Together as they plan for, and think about, their potential response to a pandemic. Emphasis is given to using shared values to assist people to care for themselves, their whānau and their neighbours, and using shared values to make decisions in situations of overwhelming demand.
Internationally, this work is unique in having had wide public input. It is the result of a consultation on a discussion document in 2006. NEAC warmly thanks all those who made valuable contributions to the creation of this document.
Purpose
An influenza pandemic would be likely to lead to high levels of illness and death, both in New Zealand and other countries. Pandemic planning aims to prevent a pandemic wherever possible, and to minimise the negative impacts of a pandemic when prevention is not possible. The World Health Organization has recommended that ethical issues be considered as part of pandemic planning.The National Ethics Advisory Committee – Kāhui Matatika o te Motu (NEAC) has prepared Getting Through Together: Ethical values for a pandemic, which includes a summary statement of ethical values (see section 1). An earlier version of the summary statement is an appendix to the Ministry of Health’s New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Action Plan (NZIPAP) (Ministry of Health, 2006).
Getting Through Together:
- considers ethical issues in a pandemic
- is informed by other work on ethics and decision-making (see Appendix C and the bibliography)
- identifies shared values on which to base the process and content of our decisions
- focuses on how to enable one another to act as best we can on the basis of shared values
- examines the challenges we may face in a pandemic using hypothetical cases (see section 2)
- offers guidance in some key areas of ethical decision-making in a pandemic
- aims to express Māori values alongside other values
- is written to reflect the New Zealand context.