Ethical Decision Making in Times of Public Health Catastrophe

Yesterday I attended the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice's (NWCPHP) first of three web conferences about ethical decision making, the session description is

People understand their own moral principles, usually intuitively and without much question. When serious disaster or disruption occurs and the world as we know it changes drastically, we learn that the way we see the world, the way we perceive cause and effect, and the way we evaluate our choices are not necessarily shared by others, even by loved ones or close coworkers. But if we discuss the principles behind our world views before catastrophe strikes, we can be better planners and decision-makers during crisis situations.

Slides are located here, and an archived session recording (1 hour) here.

Dr. Harvey Kayman, who became a public health officer after 25 years in pediatrics and 14 years as chief patient educator of the Fremont clinic at Kaiser Permanente, was a very effective and responsive web conference presenter. Many webcasters do not handle audience questions consisting of both audio and text well but he strove for inclusiveness. I highly encourage listening to the recording for a wealth of information beyond the slides and am looking forward to the second webconference in March 2009.