The Variety of "Moral Paradigms” of Intergenerational Relations in the Pandemic: An Analysis of Ethical Policy Advice Statements in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom

The COVID 19-pandemic proved to be a stress test for moral relations between generations. In many countries, appeals to intergenerational solidarity played a prominent role in public and policy discourses on the pandemic. They constituted a central normative reference point in debates on infection control measures, prioritization of intensive care resources, and the allocation of vaccines. However, the concrete moral claims and political strategies derived turned out to be rather heterogeneous, sometimes even contradictory in different national contexts.

Our contribution explores the moral significance and implications of appeals to intergenerational solidarity in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to carve out how moral relations between generations were understood during the pandemic, what similarities and differences occurred between national contexts, and how they played out in the respective pandemic policies. Our considerations are based on an ethical document analysis of prominent statements from national policy advice bodies in all three countries. A particular focus will be on the German Ethics Council’s ad-hoc recommendations “Solidarity and Responsibility during the Coronavirus Crisis” (27 March 2020), the Swedish Council on Medical Ethics’ report “Ethical Choices in a Pandemic” (15 May 2020) and the British Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ rapid policy briefing “Ethical considerations in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic” (17 March 2020). We identify a variety of “moral paradigms” of intergenerational relations that can be linked to different socio-cultural and socio-political traditions and framework conditions. They range from ideals of communal care for the weak and vulnerable to principles of equal rights and mutual respect, or virtues of individual responsibility. We discuss the implications of our findings for understandings of social moralities, highlighting the theoretical premises and methodological requirements of research on “moral paradigms”.