During the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare systems worried that they would face very severe shortages which could significantly affect clinical decision making for physicians, patients and families. Shortages of ICU beds and ventilators created very real concerns about how to properly ration them, which led to wrenching life-and death-decisions.… Read the rest
Category: Healthcare Ethics (Page 1 of 3)
T’ruah, The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
- Contact Tracing, Civil Liberties, and Public Health (October 2020)
Lifesaving activity that endangers members of one’s own household (published in English July/August 2020; original publication date unlisted)… Read the rest
by R.J. Snell, Ph.D.
Given the continued spread of coronavirus and the inherent limitations of stay at home orders and social distancing, many health authorities are developing contact tracing plans. As outlined by the CDC, case investigators would contact infected patients, “assist in arranging for patients to isolate themselves, and work with patients to identify people with whom the patients have been in close contact so the contact tracer can locate them.”… Read the rest
Sikh patient healthcare provider guidelines (undated, April 2020)… Read the rest
National Catholic Bioethics Center: The duty to care during a pandemic (April 29, 2020) [a preprint of an article forthcoming in National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly]… Read the rest
Triage and limited resource allocation protocols can be ethically appropriate when a genuine crisis situation arises, where the demand for resources (space, staff, equipment) surpasses availability, and when other reasonable efforts to increase supply fail to meet the need. They must be built on a proper, principled moral framework.
These guidelines set out some basic moral principles and examples of what a sound triage protocol might include, as well as what it should avoid, in outline format. They are not exhaustive and remain subject to revision.
1. Triage protocols can be ethically appropriate when a genuine crisis situation arises, the demand for resources (e.g.,
