I PROPOSE to address today the question of whether the lockdown or shutdown of the economy and curtailment of normal life is justified from the perspectives of public necessity, law and ethics.
Most of us assume that the lockdown/shutdown is justified on the grounds of public necessity and public welfare. But there are those who think otherwise, who see the economic shutdown as government coercion at its most intrusive. Some are now pressing for the easing of the restrictions so that people can start returning to work.
Finally, I will turn to the field of bioethics to provide a perspective on the ethical issues raised by various mandatory impositions by the government.Heather MacDonald, a journalist and attorney, caused a stir in the US last week when she argued in an essay published in the April issue of the New Criterion that the government’s reaction to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic was “a cure worse than the disease.
The essay’s “compared to what” question addressed whether this minuscule chance that any random one of us could die from Covid-19 justifies locking down the economy. If the lockdown goes on much longer, it could put millions of people out of work, destroy additional trillions of dollars in wealth, and lead to surges of suicides, drug addiction, divorce, broken families, crime and other societal disasters.
“Comparing the relative value of lives makes for grisly calculus, but one is forced to ask: are we missing the forest for the trees? If the measures we undertake to protect a vulnerable few end up exposing them, along with the rest of society, to even more damaging risks — is it worth the cost?… ”The bottom line, however, is that there are probably no settled legal answers. We miss that in normal times of peace and prosperity, when the rule of law governs. But, in crisis, we see the limits of law. In essence, these questions call for political determinations. They turn on the perception of peril at a given time, which is a function of fluid circumstances that cannot be forecast with precision.