Abstrakt
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started in early 2020, countries across all the continents have faced a dilemma between the protection of several conflicting fundamental rights guaranteed by international law. On the one hand, the life and health of people have been seriously endangered by the new virus.
On the other hand, many epidemiological measures have interfered with some other fundamental rights. Therefore, careful balancing has been necessary to find proportionality between the protection of competing rights.
Nevertheless, the proportionality of interferences with human rights is arguably dependent on the epidemiological situation in each country, i.e., on the nature and intensity of threat to human life and health. This might bring us to a broader question of what ethical theories provide the basis for containment measures and whether the contemporary ethical paradigm has passed the test of the current crisis.
The paper analyses the possible changes in the role of utilitarianism as one of the leading theories in medical ethics during the pandemic. Furthermore, it asks whether it is reasonable to strive for the generally valid set of legal and ethical rules applicable regardless of the wider circumstances.