Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
PUBLIC HEALTH IN DISASTERS, İLHAN MUSTAFA NECMİ, Editör, Turkiye Klinikleri, Ankara, ss.23-40, 2026
Ethics is a philosophical discipline that evaluates human behavior based on values, responsibilities, and principles. As in many areas of society, ethical principles in healthcare aim to protect individual rights, ensure fair service delivery, and balance professional responsibilities. While medical ethics guides individual clinical decisions through the principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and autonomy, disaster ethics requires the reinterpretation of these principles within a more complex and multi-actor decision-making environment. Disaster settings—characterized by uncertainty, resource scarcity, time pressure, and emotional intensity—exacerbate ethical dilemmas and demand a distinctive ethical approach that balances individual rights with collective benefit, ideal decisions with feasible options, and moral responsibility with institutional obligations. Each phase of the disaster management cycle presents distinct ethical challenges. In the pre-disaster phase, issues such as preparedness and equitable access come to the fore. During the disaster response phase, ethical concerns arise around triage, resource allocation, and the limits of professional duty. In the post-disaster period, ethically sound approaches to recovery, mental health services, and long-term support systems become crucial. Across all phases, protecting vulnerable groups, ensuring transparency, and maintaining accountability are of paramount importance. Moreover, conducting scientific research in disaster contexts entails significant ethical risks. Core principles of disaster research ethics include voluntary participation, informed consent, data privacy, prevention of psychological harm, and a clear separation between research and aid efforts. In this context, ethical conduct in disasters is not merely an individual responsibility but a systemic necessity that must be planned and governed institutionally. A disaster management system grounded in ethical principles is indispensable for preserving human dignity, maintaining trust in health services, and strengthening societal resilience.