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The Precautionary Principle in Zoonotic Disease Control
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that zoonotic diseases are a great threat for humanity. During the course of such a pandemic, public health authorities often apply the precautionary principle to justify disease control measures. However, evoking this principle is not without ethical implications. Es...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8194555/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34646356 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/phe/phab012 |
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author | van Herten, J Bovenkerk, B |
author_facet | van Herten, J Bovenkerk, B |
author_sort | van Herten, J |
collection | PubMed |
description | The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that zoonotic diseases are a great threat for humanity. During the course of such a pandemic, public health authorities often apply the precautionary principle to justify disease control measures. However, evoking this principle is not without ethical implications. Especially within a One Health strategy, that requires us to balance public health benefits against the health interests of animals and the environment, unrestricted use of the precautionary principle can lead to moral dilemmas. In this article, we analyze the ethical dimensions of the use of the precautionary principle in zoonotic disease control and formulate criteria to protect animals and the environment against one-sided interpretations. Furthermore, we distinguish two possible conceptions of the precautionary principle. First, we notice that because of the unpredictable nature of zoonotic diseases, public health authorities in general focus on the idea of precaution as preparedness. This reactive response often leads to difficult trade-offs between human and animal health. We therefore argue that this policy should always be accompanied by a second policy, that we refer to as precaution as prevention. Although zoonotic diseases are part of our natural world, we have to acknowledge that their origin and global impact are often a consequence of our disturbed relation with animals and the environment. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8194555 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-81945552021-06-15 The Precautionary Principle in Zoonotic Disease Control van Herten, J Bovenkerk, B Public Health Ethics Original Articles The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that zoonotic diseases are a great threat for humanity. During the course of such a pandemic, public health authorities often apply the precautionary principle to justify disease control measures. However, evoking this principle is not without ethical implications. Especially within a One Health strategy, that requires us to balance public health benefits against the health interests of animals and the environment, unrestricted use of the precautionary principle can lead to moral dilemmas. In this article, we analyze the ethical dimensions of the use of the precautionary principle in zoonotic disease control and formulate criteria to protect animals and the environment against one-sided interpretations. Furthermore, we distinguish two possible conceptions of the precautionary principle. First, we notice that because of the unpredictable nature of zoonotic diseases, public health authorities in general focus on the idea of precaution as preparedness. This reactive response often leads to difficult trade-offs between human and animal health. We therefore argue that this policy should always be accompanied by a second policy, that we refer to as precaution as prevention. Although zoonotic diseases are part of our natural world, we have to acknowledge that their origin and global impact are often a consequence of our disturbed relation with animals and the environment. Oxford University Press 2021-05-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8194555/ /pubmed/34646356 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/phe/phab012 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
spellingShingle | Original Articles van Herten, J Bovenkerk, B The Precautionary Principle in Zoonotic Disease Control |
title | The Precautionary Principle in Zoonotic Disease Control |
title_full | The Precautionary Principle in Zoonotic Disease Control |
title_fullStr | The Precautionary Principle in Zoonotic Disease Control |
title_full_unstemmed | The Precautionary Principle in Zoonotic Disease Control |
title_short | The Precautionary Principle in Zoonotic Disease Control |
title_sort | precautionary principle in zoonotic disease control |
topic | Original Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8194555/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34646356 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/phe/phab012 |
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