Abstract
The ethical experience and lessons of China’s and the world's response to COVID-19 will be debated for many years to come. But one feature of the Chinese authoritarian response that should not be overlooked is its practice of silencing and humiliating the whistle-blowers who told the truth about the epidemic. In this article, we document the humiliation of Dr Li Wenliang (1986–2020), the most prominent whistle-blower in the Chinese COVID-19 epidemic. Engaging with the thought of Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit, who argues that humiliation constitutes an injury to a person’s self-respect, we discuss his contention that a decent society is one that abolishes conditions which constitute a justification for its dependents to consider themselves humiliated. We explore the ways that institutions humiliate whistle-blowers in Western countries as well as in China.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 543-547 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Journal of bioethical inquiry |
Volume | 17 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry Pty Ltd.
Keywords
- COVID-19
- China
- Decent society
- Public health ethics
- Whistle-blowing