Drastic changes in the practice of end-of-life care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT

This article discusses drastic changes in the practice of end-of-life care during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reviews the ethical dilemmas of individual autonomy versus societal justice, human beneficence versus public health non-maleficence that arose during the pandemic due to prolonged, high acutity,= critical illness in the setting of a highly contageous respiratory virus, protective personal equipment shortages,m crisis standards of care to distribute scarce medical resources, and changes in interactions between treating clinicians, patients, and visitors. The lessons learned during the pandemic response will directly inform and impact the appraoch to future pandemic events.