GS4 · UPSC Mains

Samuel is a famous tennis player. He is at the top of his career and had won three grand slams last year. The first major tournament of this year is scheduled for next week in Country A. Samuel is the defending champion and crowd favourite. Organizers of the tournament expect Samuel to be a crowd puller for his matches. Many aspiring tennis players and youth look up to Samuel as their idol. The tournament is being organized amidst the deadly third wave of Covid infection in country A. Country A has declared a public health emergency due to the rising number of Covid cases. Keeping in mind medical exigency, the organizers have mandated that every participating athlete as well as the attending audience should be fully vaccinated with two doses. However, Samuel refused to get vaccinated as he believes that vaccines can negatively impact his performance in the tournament. Samuel also argued that mandatory vaccination is a violation of his right to choose and goes against his individual liberty. The organizers of the tournament knew that if Samuel is denied entry in the tournament, their revenue from ticket sales may go down. They hesitantly allowed Samuel to participate in the tournament even without his compliance with vaccine mandate. To tackle the surging wave of pandemic, country A has prescribed two weeks quarantine for anyone who has visited any other pandemic affected country. Samuel has visited one such country. But such a declaration from Samuel would mean that he would miss the tournament as only one week is left for the start of matches. To avoid quarantine, Samuel lied in his affidavit and claimed that he had not visited any other pandemic affected country. Samuel's popularity became his enemy as people quickly found that he had lied in his affidavit and photos of him vacationing last week in a pandemic affected country went viral on social media. There was a huge outrage against the conduct of Samuel. Samuel was arrested, fined and deported from country A. But there was also a section of the population who wanted to see Samuel in action and was upset that Samuel was forced to leave country A. Based on this case study, answer the following: a) Identify various ethical issues involved in this incident. b) In your opinion, whether vaccine mandates are a violation of individual liberty or a reasonable restriction on personal freedom? Justify. c) Discuss the ethical responsibility of famous personalities while conducting themselves in public. (20 marks, 250 words)

20 marks · 250 words · 3 toppers answered this · seen 2023

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