The fairness of ventilator allocation during the COVID-19 pandemic
There is ongoing debate on how to fairly allocate scarce critical care resources to patients with COVID-19. The debate revolves around two views: those who believe that priority for scarce resources should primarily aim at saving the most lives (SML) or at saving the most life-years, and those who b...
1. VerfasserIn: | |
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Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
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Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Veröffentlicht: |
Wiley-Blackwell
2022
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In: |
Bioethics
Jahr: 2022, Band: 36, Heft: 6, Seiten: 715-723 |
IxTheo Notationen: | NCH Medizinische Ethik TK Neueste Zeit |
weitere Schlagwörter: | B
the individualist lottery
B Covid-19 B ventilator allocation B Fairness |
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Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
Zusammenfassung: | There is ongoing debate on how to fairly allocate scarce critical care resources to patients with COVID-19. The debate revolves around two views: those who believe that priority for scarce resources should primarily aim at saving the most lives (SML) or at saving the most life-years, and those who believe that public health should focus on health equity to address health disparities and social determinants of health. I argue that maximizing medical outcomes by saving the greatest number of patients is not a plausible strategy for combating COVID-19. There are reasons of fairness to give each patient who can meet general eligibility requirements a chance of being saved. Rather than focusing on outcome maximization, a better solution would be the individualist lottery that takes account of probability of survival and duration of treatment. Although the individualist lottery allocates scarce resources in a fair way that is responsive to health equity concerns, it still gives considerable weight to the concern of SML. Thus, this procedure can be reasonably accepted by all key stakeholders. |
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ISSN: | 1467-8519 |
Enthält: | Enthalten in: Bioethics
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12955 |