When offering a patient beneficial treatment undermines public health.
Bioethics
; 37(9): 846-853, 2023 11.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37639215
ABSTRACT
Sometimes, offering someone beneficial care is likely to thwart the similar or more serious medical needs of more people. For example, when acute shortage is strongly predicted to persist, providing the long period on scarce intensive care that a certain COVID-19 patient needs is sometimes projected to block several future COVID-19 patients from receiving the shorter periods on intensive care that they will need. Expected utility is typically higher if the former is denied intensive care. A tempting initial account of such cases is that consequentialism supports denying care to that patient and nonconsequentialism supports providing that care. This paper argues that the consequentialist case is more complicated than it may initially seem and that nonconsequentialism sides more readily with denial of the beneficial treatment. It also shows that when denying it would directly enhance public health by a lot, either ethical approach would normally recommend denying it. Practical implications are discussed, including how to address conscientious objection to this shared recommendation.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Conciencia
/
COVID-19
Tipo de estudio:
Guideline
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Bioethics
Asunto de la revista:
ETICA
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos