Year: 2020
Type: review
Abstract: The devastating pandemic that has stricken the worldwide population induced an unprecedented influx of patients in ICUs, raising ethical concerns not only surrounding triage and withdrawal of life support decisions, but also regarding family visits and quality of end-of-life support. These ingredients are liable to shake up our ethical principles, sharpen our ethical dilemmas, and lead to situations of major caregiver sufferings. Proposals have been made to rationalize triage policies in conjunction with ethical justifications. However, whatever the angle of approach, imbalance between utilitarian and individual ethics leads to unsolvable discomforts that caregivers will need to overcome. With this in mind, we aimed to point out some critical ethical choices with which ICU caregivers have been confronted during the Covid-19 pandemic and to underline their limits. The formalized strategies integrating the relevant tools of ethical reflection were disseminated without deviating from usual practices, leaving to intensivists the ultimate choice of decision.
Source: Annals of Intensive Care
Institutions: Inserm, Université de Poitiers, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Poitiers, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Université de Bordeaux, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux, Université de Bourgogne, CHU Dijon Bourgogne, Laboratoire de psychologie: dynamiques relationnelles et processus identitaires, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nantes, Université de Nantes, Nantes Université
Language: English
Topic: Ethics in medical practice
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,790
Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
Award: NExT (I-SITE)
OpenAlex ID: W3036857762