Chapter 2: Ethical principles for a pandemic This chapter sets out six ethical principles for Aotearoa New Zealand to apply during a pandemic. Explicitly identifying principles offers a shared basis for decision-making. However, trying to describe each principle in isolation is difficult as the principles are interconnected and relate strongly to each other. In many situations, several different ethical principles will be important. Sometimes they will pull us in conflicting directions. Different people may express the principles described in this statement in different ways. For example, equity and tika require honouring the mana of individuals, or manaakitanga and kotahitanga require respectful relationships. Ethical Guidance for a Pandemic should not be read as identifying any principles as being more important than others. Rather, all principles are important, and the appropriate emphasis to give each one depends on the context. While the same principles apply to pandemic planning as to pandemic response, the relative importance of each principle may shift. For instance, if a pandemic poses a great health risk to the population, health and wellbeing becomes particularly important.
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