Ethics, pandemics, and the duty to treat. Am J Bioeth 2008 Aug;8(8):4-19
Date
09/20/2008Pubmed ID
18802849DOI
10.1080/15265160802317974Scopus ID
2-s2.0-52149090304 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 154 CitationsAbstract
Numerous grounds have been offered for the view that healthcare workers have a duty to treat, including expressed consent, implied consent, special training, reciprocity (also called the social contract view), and professional oaths and codes. Quite often, however, these grounds are simply asserted without being adequately defended or without the defenses being critically evaluated. This essay aims to help remedy that problem by providing a critical examination of the strengths and weaknesses of each of these five grounds for asserting that healthcare workers have a duty to treat, especially as that duty would arise in the context of an infectious disease pandemic. Ultimately, it argues that none of the defenses is currently sufficient to ground the kind of duty that would be needed in a pandemic. It concludes by sketching some practical recommendations in that regard.
Author List
Malm H, May T, Francis LP, Omer SB, Salmon DA, Hood RMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
American Medical AssociationCodes of Ethics
Communicable Diseases
Contracts
Disaster Planning
Disease Outbreaks
Employment
Ethical Theory
Ethics, Medical
Ethics, Nursing
Ethics, Professional
Health Personnel
Humans
Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional
Moral Obligations
Motivation
Physician-Patient Relations
Physicians
Public Health
Refusal to Treat
Social Responsibility
United States
