COVID 19: Ethical dilemmas in human lives

J Eval Clin Pract. 2021 Jun;27(3):716-732. doi: 10.1111/jep.13453. Epub 2020 Sep 14.

Abstract

On 7 May 2020, Columbia University Global Centers hosted an online international symposium on ethical dilemmas during the COVID-19 pandemic. This interdisciplinary engagement between philosophers and Covid medical professionals reports the challenges as well as the discrepancies between ethical guidelines and reality. This collection of presentations identifies four key ethical dilemmas regarding responsibility, fairness, dignity and honouring death. In looking into accountability and consistency in medical humanities, it examines whether the contextuality of coronavirus across countries and cultures affected the ethical decision-making processes. This work aims to provide a seminal resource for the development of a high-quality roadmap in medical ethics for future health crises.

Keywords: epistemology; healthcare; humanity; medical ethics; philosophy of medicine; public health.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Death
  • Ethics, Medical*
  • Humans
  • Pandemics*
  • Respect
  • Social Responsibility