[The armed forces health service in the face of major health risks]. / Le Service de Santé des Armées face aux risques sanitaires majeurs d'origine infectieuse. Une mise en œuvre de l'éthique de responsabilité.

ABSTRACT

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic in France called upon the French Army Health Services (SSA) to support the population on its national territory but also overseas, in Mayotte and French Guiana. In charge of the medical support of the forces, the SSA has evolved since the 18th century according to the format of the Armed Forces but also according to the nature of the conflicts, these changes being accompanied by ethical and moral questions. If rules of medical ethics apply to practitioners, they are also military in this context, the notions of ethics of responsibility and ethics of conviction bring questions. Its questions are even more complex when these soldiers are projected into external operations where current conflicts, of a terrorist nature, expose the local populations, women and children specifically. Nevertheless, the SSA can also be projected to respond to exclusively health issues (excluding conflicts) as during the Ebola epidemic in Guinea in 2014, or more recently in Mulhouse with COVID-19. This last point raises fears of the development of bioterrorism where the questions of medico-military ethics would then be very complex; they must therefore be taken into account and analyzed, but also extended to raising awareness of the fighting forces.