Cheung Daisy, Ip Eric C
Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Asian Bioeth Rev. 2020 Aug 18;12(4):503-510. doi: 10.1007/s41649-020-00144-0. eCollection 2020 Dec.
States all over the world have reacted to COVID-19 with quarantines of entire cities, provinces, and even nations. Previous studies and preliminary evidence from current lockdowns suggest that emergency measures protecting the public's physical health by dislocating individuals, families, and social networks could well be causing a devastating public health crisis of mental ill-health in the months and years to come. This article is the first to take a public mental health ethics perspective in examining these lockdowns, the lodestar of which is the right to mental health, rooted in the concept of human dignity. Even the strictest lockdowns are not necessarily unethical but are prone to damage mental health disproportionately, with vulnerable and disadvantaged populations being at particular risk.
世界各国都对新冠疫情采取了措施，封锁了整个城市、省份乃至国家。以往的研究以及当前封锁措施的初步证据表明，通过使个人、家庭和社交网络分离来保护公众身体健康的紧急措施，很可能在未来数月乃至数年引发一场心理健康不良的灾难性公共卫生危机。本文首次从公共心理健康伦理学的角度审视这些封锁措施，其指导原则是基于人类尊严概念的心理健康权。即使是最严格的封锁措施也不一定不道德，但往往会对心理健康造成不成比例的损害，弱势群体面临的风险尤其大。
