The Thin End

If health care resources and staff are stretched to the limit, difficult life or death choices must be made.  Who to treat? That will be the question. At ordinary times decisions might be made based on whether treatment will do more harm than good.  It might even be the patient who decides.  End of life decisions are more often like that.  Will further treatment help? But these are not regular times. The British Medical Association guidance on pandemics says "In dangerous pandemics the ethical balance of all doctors and health care workers must shift towards the utilitarian objective of equitable concern for all – while maintaining respect for all as ‘ends in themselves’." If resources are spent on saving the life of one person at the expense of many others, how then is that balance to be made? One thing is sure.  Our actions are also part of this ethical mix.  Our efforts will determine whether or not the anticipated surge in those requiri...