By Sanjiv Ahluwalia, Rupal Shah & John Spicer. In this post, we want to challenge to the idea that ethical decision making exists independently of context or of the interactions that influence us. We propose that social complexity offers an alternative perspective to our existing normative frameworks; a perspective which validates our subjective experience of […]
Category: clinical ethics
Be careful what you wish for: ICU is no panacea
By Angela Ballantyne, Wendy Rogers, Vikki Entwistle, Cindy Towns In current debates about allocation of scarce ICU resources, we suggest there is undue optimism about the ‘good’ of intensive care unit (ICU) access. Most critical COVID-19 patients who receive access to a ventilator will still die. The minority who survive will likely leave with significant […]
Prioritizing justice in ventilator allocation
By L. Syd M Johnson As the Covid-19 pandemic intensified worldwide, grim reports out of Italy’s embattled and overwhelmed hospitals foretold the need to plan for rationing ventilators in the event that the number of patients requiring them exceeded the number available. Hospitals, ethics committees, and government agencies around the US began planning for the […]
Towards meaningful human control. Using artificial intelligence in clinical decision making
By Matthias Braun, Patrik Hummel, Susanne Beck, Peter Dabrock Clinical decision-making can be challenging. The subject matter is complex. Decisions can have incisive, long-lasting consequences. There is imperfect evidence and informational asymmetries between those involved. Time constraints and economic restrictions complicate the process further. In view of difficulties like these, it is tempting to deploy […]
DNACPRs and advance care planning in the COVID19 pandemic: key lessons
By Catriona McMillan and Victoria Sobolewska Patient-doctor discussions surrounding do not attempt cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) orders amidst the COVID-19 pandemic have caused widespread, understandable panic in the UK, set against a backdrop of proportionately higher elderly deaths, discussions surrounding resource allocation (particularly with reference to ventilators), and emerging stories of rising care home deaths. Here, […]
Why a relational account cannot rule out infanticide if abortion is permissible
By Bruce Blackshaw and Daniel Rodger It is widely recognised that late-term fetuses and infants differ little in features that are thought to be morally relevant such as consciousness and rationality. This poses a problem for ethicists who argue for the permissibility of abortion but wish to rule out infanticide. Some just bite the bullet—Alberto […]
COVID-19: In focussing on intensive care we must not lose sight of the wider professional duty to care for all patients.
By Anne Slowther and Sarah Mitchell As the number of cases and number of deaths from COVID-19 continues to rise exponentially much of the health care response, and subsequent bioethics commentary, has focussed on provision of intensive care for critically ill patients who require ventilation. This is understandable given the mismatch between the number of people […]
Personal Protective Equipment for front-line health workers: an ethical imperative
By Elizabeth Fenton Covid-19 poses risks to health care workers that exceed those posed to members of the public. Repeated exposure to infected patients increases their risk of infection, and might also make their symptoms more severe if they become infected. Although reported numbers vary, in Italy approximately 9% of COVID-19 cases are health workers, […]
Clinical ethics in a public health crisis: supporting our clinician colleagues at the frontline
By Rosalind McDougall. Clinical ethicists around the world are responding to COVID-19 in an effort to support our clinician colleagues at the frontline. The clinical ethics community is compiling resources, developing ethical guidelines, and contributing to hospital policy as the scale of the crisis increases. The hope is that ethics can offer a structured way […]
Being, and getting, in the know
By Sara Filoche, Peter Stone, Fiona Cram, Sondra Bacharach, Anthony Dowell, Dianne Sika-Paotonu, Angela Beard, Judy Ormandy, Christina Buchanan, Michelle Thunders, and Kevin Dew Have you ever been a patient where you felt that a healthcare practitioner was merely talking at you, rather than with you? Or that your opinion (or value) didn’t count? If […]