ABSTRACT
A disaster corresponds to the ‘occurrence of a calamitous event, usually sudden and violent, resulting in substantial material damage, considerable displacement of people and/or a large number of victims and/or a significant disruption of society, or a combination of these. The specific question concerning Ethics and Disaster Medicine has led us to undertake a research programme with the aim of producing a book on Ethics and Disaster Medicine to be used in the teaching of this discipline in specialised disaster medicine training. This work was undertaken in the framework of the Council of Europe EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement, on the basis of co-operation between the European Centre for Disaster Medicine in the Republic of Saint Marino and the European Medicine and Human Rights Network of the European Federation of Scientific Co-operation Networks. Training in disaster medicine should be developed in concerted fashion at the European level to arrive at a common European curriculum in a recognised speciality leading to European diploma.
