Humiliating Whistle-Blowers: Li Wenliang, the Response to Covid-19, and the Call for a Decent Society.
J Bioeth Inq
; 17(4): 543-547, 2020 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-728228
ABSTRACT
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.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Social Control, Informal
/
Public Health
/
Whistleblowing
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
J Bioeth Inq
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S11673-020-09990-x
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