Ethical-Medical orientations for the attention of critical patients in the COVID-19 pandemic context

Diana Aurenque; Ruth Marcela Espinosa; Juan Alberto Lecaros Urzúa; Daniel Loewe; Raúl Villarroel

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Ethical-Medical orientations for the attention of critical patients in the COVID-19 pandemic context

Diana Aurenque ^[1] ; Ruth Marcela Espinosa ^[2] ; Juan Alberto Lecaros ^[3] ; Daniel Loewe ^[4] ; Raúl Villarroel ^[5]
1. [1] Universidad de Santiago de Chile
  
  Universidad de Santiago de Chile
  
  Santiago, Chile
2. [2] Universidad Andrés Bello
  
  Universidad Andrés Bello
  
  Santiago, Chile
3. [3] Universidad del Desarrollo
  
  Universidad del Desarrollo
  
  Santiago, Chile
4. [4] Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez
  
  Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez
  
  Santiago, Chile
5. [5] Universidad de Chile
  
  Universidad de Chile
  
  Santiago, Chile
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Localización: Ramon Llull journal of applied ethics, ISSN 2013-8393, Nº. 12, 2021, págs. 195-206
Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
- In the face of a possible health saturation due to the pan-demic caused by the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus, the present paper wants to contribute with some guidelines in order to provide ethical orientation to prioritize patients and maximize the benefits for the majority of the population. This paper aims to generate an acceptable, consistent, and reasonable ethical framework to support the difficult work that health professionals will have in emergency rooms and intensive care units. The criteria and reflections in this paper aim to respect not only ethical-med-ical principles that focus their efforts on a particular patient, but especial-ly on a broader public health ethics based on the principle of justice. Prioritization is therefore oriented in a utilitarian framework that seeks to save the largest number of lives, of life-years and considering the life stage, without neglecting the people’s dignity. In this sense, it is not only a matter of considering epidemiological criteria, but also of establishing socially acceptable ethical criteria. This proposal is a collective effort to bring together the comparative experience of various international ethical recommendations, adapting them, if pertinent, to the Chilean reality.