Ethical Issues of the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak in East-Central Europe and Beyond is an edited collection that examines the profound moral and societal challenges unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the ethical tensions that surfaced in health care, governance, and individual rights. Through the exploration of East-Central Europe’s responses, the 16 chapters of this book shed light on the crisis of resource allocation, the strain on health systems, and the shift in ethical paradigms that prioritized collective well-being over individual autonomy. This collection is a reflection on the bioethical dilemmas of the first global pandemic of modern times.

ASSYA PASCALEV is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Interdisciplinary Bioethics Program at Howard University, Washington, DC. She is Founding Director of the Bulgarian Center for Bioethics in Sofia, Bulgaria. Dr. Pascalev received her Ph.D. in Applied Philosophy from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA. She has expertise in biomedical ethics, moral philosophy, applied and professional ethics (including research ethics and the ethics of biotechnology), ethical theory and the philosophy of death and dying. She has over 50 publications in her areas of expertise. Dr. Pascalev is a Board Member of the National Association for Clinical and Translational Science, USA, and a member of the Medical Academy of Washington, DC. She is a book series editor for Perspectives in Bioethics, Trivent Publishing, Hungary. 

DR. GERGELY TARI is the Vice Director of the Department of Behavioural Sciences at the Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School, University of Szeged, and a research fellow at the MTA Lendület "Values and Science" Research Group, Institute of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His main research interest is related to the ethics of medicalization, with a particular focus on childbirth, psychiatry, and end-of-life care.

"This expedient book questions whether the countries in Central and Eastern Europe passed a key fitness test thrown at them by the COVID-19 pandemic: their ability to deploy and distribute scarce health resources fairly and efficiently. Few things can be more telling for the moral and political maturity of a society than its conduct during a health emergency. In this collection of original essays, the prudence of hindsight is as significant as the warnings of foresight. The interdisciplinary approach makes the book a must-read for scholars working in the field of bioethics, health care, health policy and law."

       Dr. Dimitrina Petrova, philosopher and human rights activist, former director of the Equal Rights Trust (London)