ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes and challenges to the ways in which we think about the value of human life, the right to health care, and what constitutes legitimate public policy in order to preserve human life and health. It is urgent to reconsider why and how our moral beliefs can inform our public policies, both with regard to specific issues related to the pandemic and the more general concerns about access to healthcare. We propose that Kierkegaard’s existential ethics may offer a starting point for rearticulating the relationship between our moral values and public policies. This may appear contradictory, insofar as Kierkegaard is often read as a thinker who puts individual choice and freedom to the fore and vehemently rejects the role of institutions. However, Kierkegaardian ethics also insists on concern for others, recognition of each particular other in his singularity and concrete existence, as well as responsibility. The question we will analyse here is how a Kierkegaardian-inspired existential ethics can help us rearticulate the role of public healthcare policy.
