Effects of the ‘mega’ earthquake on february 27, 2010, on the Talca Regional Hospital: bioethics analysis focused on prevention

Abstract

We practice an analysis from the bioethical standpoint of the negative effects on the health care to the users of the Regional Hospital of Talca, due to the extensive damage made to this hospital because of the earthquake occurred on February 27, 2010. We used a deliberative type method: analysis of the facts (vulnerability due to earthquakes, post earthquake damage and technical standards of earthquake resistance of health facilities), analysis of the values involved and analysis of duties, emphasizing the responsibility to prevent damage to the hospitals produced by earthquakes, in order to facilitate the condition of possibility for undertake the emergency health response and then continue with the ordinary delivery of health services.

We conclude that due to the high seismicity of our territory and the possibility to prevent the structural damage of hospitals, it is vital that the Chilean State and Society, they can use a Responsibility Ethic as a paradigm having as its goal the concern for the vulnerable, and they should join forces to make effective the measures of standardization or reconstruction of hospitals before of the telluric events.