COVID-19 AND CHALLENGES IN HEALTHCARE: CARE OF THE ELDERLY, ALLOCATION OF HEALTH CARE RESOURCES & ETHICS OF TREATMENT AND VACCINES
Keywords:
Allocation of Medical Resources, Care of the Aged, Covid-19 & Moral Issues, Ethical Principles, Ethical Committees, Good Samaritan, Vaccination against CovidAbstract
The covid pandemic severely affected the health care system of all countries irrespective of the economic status, literacy rate or government power. As a result, a number of moral issues emerged like the care of the elderly and the persons with co-morbidities, the just allocation of the scarce medical resources and the morality of getting vaccinated and of some vaccines. The role of hospital ethical committees in the decision making process is crucial in such situations. The parable of Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30-37) is a guiding example in the safe moral handling of this emergency situation. Each health care personnel is called to be another Good Samaritan. The allocation of the scarce medical resources need to follow clear ethical guidelines and principles. This paper analyses these crucial issues, trying to present the available data, and then dealing the problem with the help of bioethical principles, proposing the ethical approaches to be undertaken and finally presenting our own observations and conclusions.
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