Department of Medical Humanities, Southeast University, 2 Dongnandaxue Rd, Jiangning District, Nanjing, China.
Bioethics Centre, University of Otago, 9 Frederic St, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
J Bioeth Inq. 2023 Jun;20(2):197-206. doi: 10.1007/s11673-023-10238-7. Epub 2023 Mar 6.
Despite the role of public health interventions in controlling disease transmission and protecting the public during the COVID-19 emergency, the implementation of quarantine restrictions has raised serious ethical concerns, especially in relation to the well-being of vulnerable populations. Drawing on the lived experiences of rural Chinese migrants who are subject to pandemic control, the authors highlight their inadequate capacities to manage the risks associated with the pandemic and adjust to quarantine restrictions. Informed by an ethical discourse of vulnerability, we show that underpinning this group's deficient coping strategies is a range of detrimental social structures and institutions that have developed under the persistent rural-urban divide in China. These structural constraints and pathologies expose rural migrants to serious risks and uncertainties while depriving them of the means and resources necessary to protect their own interests in the process of complying with quarantine restrictions. Understanding the plight of rural Chinese migrants as a structural problem also has implications for the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We further suggest a need for state intervention to mitigate structural deficiencies and empower the vulnerable during the COVID-19 era.
尽管公共卫生干预措施在控制疾病传播和保护公众方面发挥了作用，但在 COVID-19 紧急情况下实施检疫限制引发了严重的伦理问题，尤其是在弱势群体的福祉方面。本文借鉴了受疫情防控影响的中国农村移民的生活经历，强调了他们在管理与疫情相关的风险和适应检疫限制方面能力不足。以脆弱性的伦理话语为指导，我们表明，造成该群体应对策略不足的原因是一系列有害的社会结构和制度，这些结构和制度是在中国城乡分割长期存在的情况下形成的。这些结构性限制和病态使农村移民在遵守检疫限制的过程中面临严重的风险和不确定性，同时剥夺了他们保护自身利益所需的手段和资源。将中国农村移民的困境理解为结构性问题，也对全球应对 COVID-19 大流行产生了影响。我们进一步建议，在 COVID-19 时代，需要国家干预来减轻结构性缺陷并赋予弱势群体权力。
