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Review
. 2020 Jun 17;10(1):84.
doi: 10.1186/s13613-020-00702-7.

Ethical dilemmas due to the Covid-19 pandemic

René Robert  1   2   3 , Nancy Kentish-Barnes  4   5 , Alexandre Boyer  6   7 , Alexandra Laurent  8   9 , Elie Azoulay  4   5 , Jean Reignier  10   11
Affiliations
Review

Ethical dilemmas due to the Covid-19 pandemic

René Robert et al. Ann Intensive Care. .

Abstract

The devastating pandemic that has stricken the worldwide population induced an unprecedented influx of patients in ICUs, raising ethical concerns not only surrounding triage and withdrawal of life support decisions, but also regarding family visits and quality of end-of-life support. These ingredients are liable to shake up our ethical principles, sharpen our ethical dilemmas, and lead to situations of major caregiver sufferings. Proposals have been made to rationalize triage policies in conjunction with ethical justifications. However, whatever the angle of approach, imbalance between utilitarian and individual ethics leads to unsolvable discomforts that caregivers will need to overcome. With this in mind, we aimed to point out some critical ethical choices with which ICU caregivers have been confronted during the Covid-19 pandemic and to underline their limits. The formalized strategies integrating the relevant tools of ethical reflection were disseminated without deviating from usual practices, leaving to intensivists the ultimate choice of decision.

Keywords: Burnout; Covid-19; End-of-life; Ethics; Family-centered care; ICU; Pandemic; Triage; Withdrawal of life support.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

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