Coronavirus queries (3): Priorities in allocation of medical resources

Abstract

Advances in medicine and medical technology leading to preservation of countless human lives are certainly more than welcome. But modern medicine has also brought in its wake heretofore virtually unknown moral quandaries, namely, how to allocate machinery, medicine and medical services when they are not sufficient to save every life that might be saved. The dilemma was dramatized decades ago with the establishment of so-called “God committees” to assign use of the then newly-invented dialysis machine to otherwise end-stage renal patients. Less dramatic, but equally vexing, are regularly made decisions regarding assignment of I.C.U. beds. Other such dilemmas arise as well. (from Introduction)