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The Future of Bioethics: It Shouldn't Take a Pandemic
Author(s) -
Churchill Larry R.,
King Nancy M. P.,
Henderson Gail E.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
hastings center report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-146X
pISSN - 0093-0334
DOI - 10.1002/hast.1133
Subject(s) - bioethics , disadvantaged , pandemic , health care , medical ethics , rationing , unit (ring theory) , sociology , public relations , engineering ethics , environmental ethics , political science , covid-19 , medicine , psychology , law , disease , philosophy , mathematics education , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , engineering
The Covid‐19 pandemic has concentrated bioethics attention on the “lifeboat ethics” of rationing and fair allocation of scarce medical resources, such as testing, intensive care unit beds, and ventilators. This focus drives ethics resources away from persistent and systemic problems—in particular, the structural injustices that give rise to health disparities affecting disadvantaged communities of color. Bioethics, long allied with academic medicine and highly attentive to individual decision‐making, has largely neglected its responsibility to address these difficult “upstream” issues. It is time to broaden our teaching, research, and practice to match the breadth of the field in order to help address these significant societal inequities and unmet health needs .