A Preliminary Study On Ethics Relating To Earthquake Disaster Relief

Earthquake disaster relief, in this paper, refers to the sum of the life rescue, supply of the relief goods and materials as well as the psychological counseling. The ethics of earthquake disaster relief means the moral requirement and moral code which can coordinate different activities conducted by the different interest groups. Considering the fact that the natural disaster---earthquake--- often breaks out suddenly, causes huge damage, and is hard to be predicted, earthquake can be defined as a special space-time region. Therefore, the ethics of earthquake disaster relief is the basic of situation ethics. The situation ethics emphasizes that in all of the cases where morality divides the situations, the priority of one particular ethic behavior cannot be determined until it is measured. The main criteria, however, to select the priority is the appropriateness of one specific space-time region, instead of the goodness or justice in the broad sense. Based on this start point, this paper attempts to examine that the three fundamental principles of the ethics of the earthquake disaster relief, which can apply to the ethics of specific space-time region, are the people-oriented practice, giving priority to efficiency with due consideration to fairness, and interdependence. Moreover, the three aspects intertwine, interconnect and are mutual beneficial. It manifests differently in the behaviors of rescue subjects and objects in the situations. Accordingly, the author of this paper believes the rescue subjects can be sub-classified leading rescue subjects, main force rescue subjects and assistant rescue subject. The different subjects abide by the different ethical principle in the special space-time region. Similarly, there are some differences in the rescue objects. And it is the difference that determines the different moral responsibility took by the rescue objects when they rescue themselves and rescue each other. The balance of the common role and situation ethics can guarantee the moral interaction of the subjects and objects, which can change disaster community into the ethical community.In a word, the ethics of the earthquake disaster relief is the system in which the moral theories, the moral code which governs behavior pattern in particular space-time region and the assessment standard are closely involved. To construct this system is not an easy task. It requires the traditional point of view which can tell good from evil, the matter-of-fact realistic point of view and the far-sighted international point of view. Only if we can see the situation from multiple point of view, can the system construction of the ethics of the earthquake disaster relief and ethics of all the disaster relief possibly accords with the normal and constant dialectical unification.