Access to healthcare
in SYRIA
Team Aleppo. HL322 International Health Issues; Winter 2017
While many confuse ethics with morals, they are not the same thing. They do, however; both play a huge role in the Syrian's current access to healthcare.
Morals refer to one's own compass deciding what is the right and wrong thing to do. Morals are shaped solely by a person's own perceptions.
Ethics are the rules of conduct set in place by society. These rules are shaped by the morals of the mass population and provide a standard for everyone to live by.
If one's own moral compass does not agree with society's rules, he or she may change his or her morals to comply with the rules or continue with the opposing views. If he or she chooses to act out of as a way of making a statement, this action could potentially be seen as protesting.
Ethics
al-Kindi hospital, Aleppo. Above in 2012 and below in 2013 (Chulov 2014)
The Geneva Convention is a set of four treaties and three protocols put in place to protect international humanitarian rights in times of war. This agreement stands as a set of ethical code for all nations engaging in war that have signed the Geneva Convention. Like many documents, it has been revised over time to resolve new problems that occur. In this case, they are controversies in humanitarian ethics. Below is a short video briefly explaining the laws involved with war.
There is a great deal of concern regarding whether or not the airstrikes by the Syrian government are ethical. If the attacks on hospitals do not abide by the Geneva Convention, the Syrian government and ISIS could be charged with war crimes. A war crime allegation is not one to be taken lightly, as it is an international law.
Airstrike attacks over Syria are destroying hospitals, mosques, homes, and storefronts. The people hurt in these attacks range from those who oppose the attackers to civilians to healthcare workers to innocent children to the sick and dying. Civilians are trapped inside cities or live a life on the move, jumping from place to place. Refugees don't know when they will be able to return home, or what is left of a former home. When the bullets stop flying, how long will it take to rebuild entire infrastructures? No matter how awful the cities destruction, the question at hand is, "Is this treatment to citizens of Syria unethical?" We'll look into what exactly the Geneva Convention states is ethical treatment to civilians and healthcare workers in the next page.
Rules of War (in a nutshell) by ICRC source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwpzzAefx9M