Too old to save? COVID-19 and age-based allocation of lifesaving medical care
Too old to save? COVID-19 and age-based allocation of lifesaving medical care
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DOI：
10.1111/bioe.13041
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发表时间：
2022-05-09
期刊：
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Jecker, Nancy S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jecker, Nancy S.
Adults aged 65 and over are disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and represent by far the largest share of severe disease and death. This paper critically examines ethical arguments for using implicit and explicit age criteria as a standard for allocating scarce lifesaving resources during the pandemic. Section 1 introduces the topic. Section 2 distinguishes standard from pandemic triage. Section 3 assesses ethical arguments for criteria that are implicitly age-based, including quality-adjusted life years, disability adjusted-life years, and total number of future life years. Section 4 examines ethical arguments for criteria that are more directly age-based, including fair innings, equality between old and young, and priority to the worse off. The paper concludes that neither implicit nor explicit age-based allocation withstands careful scrutiny.
