Question 1

You work as a quarantine officer at Nadi International airport. You are serving a local multicultural population comprising many thousands of people. One of your key tasks is to ensure and protect the health of all the people who pass through the airport, both incoming and outgoing, as well as the local population. One day you receive a phone call from a friend. She works for the Department of Public Health, with a particular responsibility for infectious diseases. She quickly explains that she has been dealing with a recent case of virus in an extended family, and is concerned that part of the family (two adults and two children) has actively avoided contact with her department in the past. Given the domestic situation, she believes that there is a reasonable probability that one or more members of the family may be infected. She has just been to their house, but a neighbour told her that they had just left for the airport with plans to go abroad. She asks you to help her by detaining the family as they enter the airport for their flight, so that they can be tested for the virus

Required:

a. What are your legal obligations in this case?

b. What are your moral obligations in this case?

c. Explain any actual or expected differences between the legal and moral obligations.

d. What should you to do?

e. Is your answer the same for both adults and children?

f. Would your answer be any different if you were asked to detain someone from your family who had been recently diagnosed with virus and was planning to fly?