ABSTRACT
This book proposes an ethical and legal framework to improve the responses to social issues related not only to the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, but also to future pandemics. Its contents cover the issues that are likely to be most controversial in any public health crisis. It starts by discussing non-pharmacological measures, such as the appropriateness of confinement, how to control compliance with public health measures and the ethical, legal and social acceptability of health certificates. Then it turns to issues related to the production, distribution and administration of vaccines, with a particular focus on the design and implementation of vaccination policies. Finally, it analyses the most appropriate criteria to develop a triage, when the situation brings us to this terrible scenario. The analyses presented in this book are based on the ethical and legal frameworks, as well as the social context, of the European Union, and aims to address the main dilemmas faced by any liberal democracy dealing with a pandemic: how to reconcile the defense against a public health crisis together with a respect for fundamental rights and freedoms. The European legal systems have developed a number of conceptual tools designed to ensure that there is no room for arbitrariness in the restrictions introduced by the political power in emergency situations, and this book builds upon these tools. The Ethical, Legal and Social Issues of Pandemics: An Analysis from the EU Perspective is a predominantly practice-oriented book, which will help policy makers to adopt policies that effectively combine public health needs with individual rights and freedoms. It will also help health care givers to understand better the ethical and legal issues involved in their work and citizens, in general, to participate in public decision making in an informed manner. Finally, it will help to design tools that faithfully comply with existing fundamental rights standards. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
ABSTRACT
Health care delivery is traditionally based on three basic ideas: i) it is better to provide more care than less;ii) once a patient is granted a medical resource, it cannot be taken from him/her unless it becomes unnecessary;iii) medical resources are distributed in accordance with priority on arrival. Sometimes, these principles lack proper legal/ethical ground, but in practice there are frequently followed criteria in many hospitals. Under normal circumstances, and assuming that there are enough healthcare resources available for everyone, this modus operandi works with few issues in light of ethics and public health consideations. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an entirely new scenario, with new methods required for patient triage and new strategies needed to avoid medical futility. This paper will sustain that the main criterion to allocate resources and triage patient of scarce health resources – such as in this pandemic – is the efficiency of the treatment. Furthermore, it underlines that fighting against medical futility becomes essential in these times. © 2021