[The Canadian plan to struggle against influenza epidemics: legal plea for a normative global approach]

The Canadian pandemic influenza plan for the health sector lies within a logic of precaution aiming at the effective prevention of human infections by the highly pathogenic influenza virus H5N1. Since the plan is designed as guidelines elaborated by the Canadian authorities to regulate behaviours should a pandemic occur, it possesses an eminent normative value. Yet, in spite of the attention being given by the experts to scientific and logistic measures, it seems clear that the Canadian plan has not undergone a thorough normative analysis, although it includes ethical considerations. The objective of this article is to show that a wider normative analysis should not be restricted to the elaboration of an ethical framework applicable to predetermined interventions. Such an analysis should also take into consideration how rational choices are made through the epistemological approach used by the experts.