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Human rights and COVID-19 triage: a comment on the Bath protocol
In their discussion paper of November 2020, Cook et al present a draft protocol for navigating circumstances in which emergency services are overwhelmed. Their paper suggests that COVID-related triage decisions should be based on clinical assessment, patient and family consultation, and a range of e...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8054825/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33863831 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107361 |
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author | Bhatt, Vivek Michalowski, Sabine Wyllie, Aaron Kuylen, Margot Martin, Wayne |
author_facet | Bhatt, Vivek Michalowski, Sabine Wyllie, Aaron Kuylen, Margot Martin, Wayne |
author_sort | Bhatt, Vivek |
collection | PubMed |
description | In their discussion paper of November 2020, Cook et al present a draft protocol for navigating circumstances in which emergency services are overwhelmed. Their paper suggests that COVID-related triage decisions should be based on clinical assessment, patient and family consultation, and a range of ethical considerations. In this response, we note that the protocol exhibits an ambiguity that is likely to result in irresolvable dilemmas when put into practice. This ambiguity is exemplified in the paper’s prime ethical imperative (to ‘save more lives and more years of life’), which takes the form of an undefined conjunction whose practical implications are left unspecified. We see this ambiguity in the prime imperative as one manifestation of a broader set of tensions in the protocol. We show that the discipline of human rights provides an essential supplement to the ethical framework on which Cook and colleagues rely, providing a framework for understanding and working through triage dilemmas involving age, discrimination and equality. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8054825 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80548252021-04-20 Human rights and COVID-19 triage: a comment on the Bath protocol Bhatt, Vivek Michalowski, Sabine Wyllie, Aaron Kuylen, Margot Martin, Wayne J Med Ethics Response In their discussion paper of November 2020, Cook et al present a draft protocol for navigating circumstances in which emergency services are overwhelmed. Their paper suggests that COVID-related triage decisions should be based on clinical assessment, patient and family consultation, and a range of ethical considerations. In this response, we note that the protocol exhibits an ambiguity that is likely to result in irresolvable dilemmas when put into practice. This ambiguity is exemplified in the paper’s prime ethical imperative (to ‘save more lives and more years of life’), which takes the form of an undefined conjunction whose practical implications are left unspecified. We see this ambiguity in the prime imperative as one manifestation of a broader set of tensions in the protocol. We show that the discipline of human rights provides an essential supplement to the ethical framework on which Cook and colleagues rely, providing a framework for understanding and working through triage dilemmas involving age, discrimination and equality. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-04 2021-04-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8054825/ /pubmed/33863831 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107361 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Response Bhatt, Vivek Michalowski, Sabine Wyllie, Aaron Kuylen, Margot Martin, Wayne Human rights and COVID-19 triage: a comment on the Bath protocol |
title | Human rights and COVID-19 triage: a comment on the Bath protocol |
title_full | Human rights and COVID-19 triage: a comment on the Bath protocol |
title_fullStr | Human rights and COVID-19 triage: a comment on the Bath protocol |
title_full_unstemmed | Human rights and COVID-19 triage: a comment on the Bath protocol |
title_short | Human rights and COVID-19 triage: a comment on the Bath protocol |
title_sort | human rights and covid-19 triage: a comment on the bath protocol |
topic | Response |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8054825/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33863831 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107361 |
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