[Current ethical challenges in intensive care in the face of the corona pandemic]. / Aktuelle ethische Herausforderungen in der Intensivmedizin angesichts der Corona-Pandemie.

ABSTRACT

In view of dramatically increasing patient numbers worldwide in the face of the corona pandemic and scarce resources in intensive care medicine in many countries, some of which are dramatically undersupplied, concerns and fears have spread among the population in Germany. Healthcare workers didn't know how to deal with an overload of the healthcare system. Numerous inquiries from concerned physicians as well as ethics committees prompted the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) together with seven other medical associations to work out a clinical-ethical recommendation on "Decisions on resource allocation in emergency and intensive care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic".