Ethical and Legal Considerations in the Emergency Department during a Zombie Outbreak

This article discusses the ethical and legal considerations that arise in the emergency department during a zombie outbreak. It covers the prevention of infection, ethical issues surrounding zombie rights and control, and the responsibilities of nurses to patients, clients, and the community.

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The Zombie Outbreak
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Overview
Zombies are very aggressive and the zombie virus (Solanum virus) is biologically
infectious and universally fatal (Smith 2015). Considering one of the modes of transmission as
bites from the infected person, the epidemic raises many ethical and legal considerations in the
emergency department (ED). As the nurses in the Emergency Department (ED), we are exposed
to the danger of contracting this infection more than our clients and employees. For instance, as
we shall discuss later, we may contract the virus through attending to the infected persons or by
coming into contact with the infected blood (Ashlock, Brown & Innes 2014).
Ethical consideration of zombie attack
The first ethical consideration that arises is the expenses involved in the control of the
outbreak. Zombies deplete resources within no time and they can run over a city or a town in a
few days or week (Smith 2015). As seen from the 2004 infection in London, military action was
the only choice and that becomes an ethical issue when the officers have to shoot to kill the
zombie to save his own life. Zombies are a risk to the extermination of humans. Zombies also
have minimal chances of survival that makes them of no economic use as they will eventually
die (Hannah & Wilkinson 2016). However, ethics protect life as it is not moral to take life from
someone. In some other instances, the situation that the persons are in, such as we the nurses,
forces us to either react positively or negatively (Schmeink 2017). If the nurse is sure of
contracting the infection and has no other escape route, killing the zombie may be ethical to save
him or herself. If the nurse has an escape route, it may be more advisable to escape as the zombie
was once a person with sound mind and dreams just as the nurse (Edwards 2015). In other
situations where containing or eliminating the spread of the virus may term the zombie killing
acts as ethical since more people will be prevented from a higher percentage of infection
(Leaning 2015).
The nurse prevention from the infection
The nurses need to be alert when attending to people affected by the Solanum virus. In
most cases, nurses bear the maximum risk when performing both primary and secondary
interventions for zombies (Stanley 2012). In the emergency department, for example, zombies
should be separated from other patients and nurses in the Emergency Department should be in
the best protective gears to prevent contamination to self (Zamudio, Chávez & Hernández 2017).
There are other instances that the bacteria and virus infecting the patients inside the hospital

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arise. As such, the floor of the hospital must always be kept clean to avoid transmission. The
nurses attending to these infected people must be vaccinated and always undertaken through
several stages of purification before they are allowed to come into contact with the infected
parties (Godfrey 2017). This measure will ensure that the risk the nurses expose their clients and
other nurses to is effectively reduced.
Other ethical issues for consideration
There are other ethical issues to be considered are whether zombies have rights, intrinsic
value, or needs, whether zombies affect international justice, whether they should be controlled
by the government or civilians (free markets), whether they are sustainable, or whether there
should be care accorded to them (Thagard 2018). As an emergency nurse, before making any
decision to terminate them, the above-mentioned factors should be considered. Looking at the
ethical aspect of whether zombies have rights, a nurse can be in a better position to make
decisions (AHPRA 2017). As we know, human beings and animals have the right as they have
distinct characters. However, zombies too have their own rights. They are characterized by hard
work and mutual relationships with their families. Thus, killing a zombie may be unethical if it
possesses no risk to the people. Zombies should be controlled by the government in different
locations from that inhabited by the safe people (Gilmour, Saito & Yoneoka 2016). In such a
case, killing a zombie in its own habit may be termed as unethical if they have already been
isolated.
Nurses and nurse employers’ responsibility to patients, other clients, and the community
Despite the risks associated with Zombie management, health providers, including
emergency nurses, are legally bound to provide safe care to all people (AHPRA 2017). However,
there is no particular standard in Australia that addresses how a nurse should act in an emergency
epidemic that is a threat to her own life. In America, however, there is a non-binding
professional behavior recommendation in the Medical Code of Ethics stating that care providers
are mandated to provide care even when they are subjected to personal light or extreme risks.
Under the law, there is no total decree to a duty of care for patients during disasters or
pandemics (L Thompson & S Thomson 2015). State laws regulate professional practice by
preparing pre disasters and no professional is to perform any duty legally if it is outside the legal
mandate. However, in practice, the roles would be blurred to provide care and contain the
disaster. This has even been portrayed in the Zombie TV Series, The Walking Dead, when

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Hershel, a veterinarian does emergency cesarean section surgery on Grimes yet without medical
training. In this case, nurses have no legal obligation of terminating life during a disaster like
Solanum infection, but should any need be to prevent further spreading, then that is an option.
The law of contract in many agencies requires that health care providers report to duty
even in case of infectious diseases like Solanum infection (L Thompson & S Thomson 2015).
The nurses in the emergency department will be expected to attend to the patients as the disaster
is deemed to be part of the job, and failure to do that would be a civil case of patient
abandonment and therefore could lead to charges under the tort of negligence.
Duties and responsibilities to nurse’ self
Even when dealing with the contagion, nurses have duties to self, their families, patients,
and the wider community as well as to their employers (Smith et al. 2013). The duty to self is
attached to the nurse refraining from performing care to a zombie who put him or her at a risk of
getting infected with the fatal virus (Banks 2015). In case the nurse is the breadwinner in her
family, he or she puts the family at a poverty risk and that would be a deemed vague issue of
negligence to the family. The duty to the employer is inclined to the contract noted above that
binds the nurse to attend to duty. The duty to patients is protecting life and giving care. The duty
to the wider community is inclined to containing the virus from spreading to affect others. Thus,
nurses must always put their health and stability first even when they perform the zombie
intervention as they are the most likely people to contract the virus is measures go against them
(Jiang, Li & Song 2017).
Conclusion
To summarize, the issue of Zombie control has no definite position as to how an
emergency nurse has to act. Laws and ethics conflict within themselves and unless the nurse acts
under Good Samaritan laws, he or she would have a stand even when under prosecution. There is
an indefinite stand as to whether charges would be civil or criminal.

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List of Reference
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<https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-
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Communities.

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