Tragic Choices: Disability, Triage, and Equity Amidst a Global Pandemic

Journal of Philosophy of Disability 1:201-210 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this paper, I make three arguments regarding Crisis Standards of Care developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, I argue against the consideration of third person quality of life judgments that deprioritize disabled or chronically ill people on a basis other than their survival, even if protocols use the language of health to justify maintaining the supposedly higher well-being of non-disabled people. Second, while it may be unavoidable that some disabled people are deprioritized by triage protocols that must consider the likelihood that someone will survive intensive treatment, Crisis Standards of Care should not consider the amount or duration of treatment someone may need to survive. Finally, I argue that, rather than parsing who should be denied treatment to maximize lives saved, professional bioethicists should have put our energy into reducing the need for such choices at all by resisting the systemic injustices that drive the need for triage.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Disability, Disablism, and COVID-19 Pandemic Triage.Jackie Leach Scully - 2020 - Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 17 (4):601-605.
Justice and Intellectual Disability In A Pandemic.Ryan H. Nelson & Leslie P. Francis - 2020 - Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 30 (3):319-338.
Paper: Enhancing the fairness of pandemic critical care triage.Jeffrey Kirby - 2010 - Journal of Medical Ethics 36 (12):758-761.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-12-16

Downloads
34 (#407,230)

6 months
16 (#109,309)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Joseph A. Stramondo
San Diego State University

Citations of this work

Bioethics, Philosophy, and Philosophy of Disability.C. Dalrymple-Fraser - 2022 - American Journal of Bioethics 22 (12):64-66.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references