Obtaining a Hospital Bed in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Legal Perspective
A judge ruled recently that a patient, known as MB, who had occupied an NHS bed for over a year, must vacate it and instead receive care in the community.
Resource Allocation
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Read more: Obtaining a Hospital Bed in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Legal Perspective -
Read more: The Harms of Abortion Restrictions During the COVID-19 Pandemic The Harms of Abortion Restrictions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
These policies restricting abortion are unlikely to conserve PPE, and more importantly, they mischaracterize the nature and importance of abortions.
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Read more: Are Clinicians Without PPE Morally Obligated to Care for COVID-19 Patients? Are Clinicians Without PPE Morally Obligated to Care for COVID-19 Patients?
Clinicians should not be obligated to perform these heroic acts, nor should we morally blame them for their decision to refuse to provide care.
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Read more: Disability and Rationing of Care amid COVID-19 Disability and Rationing of Care amid COVID-19
Most physicians and bioethicists involved in establishing rationing of care guidelines have not claimed disability status. This needs to change.
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Read more: How Triage During COVID-19 Can be Fair to Patients with Disabilities How Triage During COVID-19 Can be Fair to Patients with Disabilities
Triage policies that use medical evidence to save more lives are legal, ethical, and better for patients with disabilities than other approaches.
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Read more: 3 Human Rights Imperatives for Rationing Care in the Time of Coronavirus 3 Human Rights Imperatives for Rationing Care in the Time of Coronavirus
By Alicia Ely Yamin and Ole F. Norheim Scholarly and official statements and publications regarding human rights during the current pandemic have largely reiterated the important lessons learned from HIV/AIDS, Zika and Ebola, such as: engagement with affected communities; combatting stigma and discrimination; ensuring access for the most vulnerable; accounting for gendered effects; and limiting…
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Read more: The Ethical Allocation of Scarce Resources in the US During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Bioethics The Ethical Allocation of Scarce Resources in the US During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Bioethics
By Beatrice Brown Critical resources for handling the COVID-19 pandemic, including ventilators and ICU beds, are quickly becoming scarce in the US as the number and density of infections continue to rise. Leading bioethicists have crafted guidelines for the ethical rationing of these scarce resources during the pandemic. On March 16, The Hastings Center published…
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Read more: Lost in the Shuffle: The Impact of COVID-19 on Immigrants in Need Lost in the Shuffle: The Impact of COVID-19 on Immigrants in Need
By Stephen Wood The recommendations for healthy people who have symptoms consistent with COVID-19, the illness caused by the corona virus called SARS-Co-V2, is to stay at home, get plenty of rest, drink fluids and control fever and body-aches with a non-steroidal medication. For people with pre-existing medical conditions, the elderly or those with more…
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Read more: One of the Biggest Public Health Initiatives in History: PEPFAR and HIV One of the Biggest Public Health Initiatives in History: PEPFAR and HIV
By Daniel Aaron In October, the Petrie-Flom Center hosted a conference of world-leading experts in HIV/AIDS to discuss one of the biggest public health successes in history: PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. PEPFAR was launched in 2003 in response to a burgeoning global epidemic of HIV. The program offered $2 billion annually,…
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Read more: Teva to Resume Production of Critical Pediatric Oncology Drug: Too Little, Too Late Teva to Resume Production of Critical Pediatric Oncology Drug: Too Little, Too Late
By Beatrice Brown In my last blog post, I reflected on the ethical issues relevant to a critical shortage of a widely used pediatric oncology drug, vincristine. The shortage occurred after one of two pharmaceutical companies producing the drug, Teva, withdrew from the market, and the other, Pfizer, was unable to keep up with the…
