In our society, both institutions and individuals will be entrusted with governance over scarce resources, such as vaccines, antivirals, ventilators, hospital beds and even health care workers. During a pandemic influenza outbreak, difficult decisions about how to allocate material and human resources will have to be made, and there will be collateral damage as a result of these allocation decisions. Those entrusted with governance roles should be guided by the notion of stewardship. Inherent in stewardship are the notions of trust, ethical behaviour, and good decision-making. Decision makers have a responsibility to: • Avoid and/or reduce collateral damage that may result from resource allocation decisions • Maximize benefits when allocating resources • Protect and develop resources where possible • Consider good outcomes (i.e. benefits to the public good) and equity (i.e., fair distribution of benefits & burdens)