Ethical Guidelines Needed for Access to Ventilators
April 3, 2020
With the rapid spread of COVID-19, many hospitals warn that they are running out of enough ventilators to treat critically ill patients, and doctors will increasingly be forced to make life-or-death decisions about who gets the machines. Facing this wrenching dilemma, the nation and its health care system need guidelines for allocating ventilators and other scarce resources, a physician and bioethicist writes in the latest Issues online exclusive, and he offers a plan for how guidelines should be developed to ensure public acceptance.