Subject(s)
Mental Health , Research Personnel , Universities , Whistleblowing , Universities/legislation & jurisprudence , Whistleblowing/ethics , Whistleblowing/legislation & jurisprudence , Whistleblowing/psychology , Research Personnel/psychology , Humans , Working Conditions/legislation & jurisprudence , Occupational Stress/prevention & control , Mental Health/standards , Mental Health/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
The ethical experience and lessons of China's and the world's response to COVID-19 will be debated for many years to come. But one feature of the Chinese authoritarian response that should not be overlooked is its practice of silencing and humiliating the whistle-blowers who told the truth about the epidemic. In this article, we document the humiliation of Dr Li Wenliang (1986-2020), the most prominent whistle-blower in the Chinese COVID-19 epidemic. Engaging with the thought of Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit, who argues that humiliation constitutes an injury to a person's self-respect, we discuss his contention that a decent society is one that abolishes conditions which constitute a justification for its dependents to consider themselves humiliated. We explore the ways that institutions humiliate whistle-blowers in Western countries as well as in China.