Past the peak of the pandemic: which non-Covid-19 patients should get treatment first?

27 May 2020

Some countries are now past the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, and new ethical issues are arising: the healthcare system continues to be under enormous pressure: because of safety measures, it works much less efficiently than before, there will continue to be Covid-19 patients, and there is an enormous backlog of patients whose treatments have been put on hold. Who should now get treatment first, and who will have to wait? OUCs Dominic Wilkinson, Professor of Medical Ethics and Consultant in Newborn Intensive Care, sheds some light on this important and extremely urgent ethical question, and proposes a practical solution.

Video

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0b61X3AyICQ

About the Series

Thinking Out Loud provides a series of videos and audio-podcasts produced by Katrien Devolder in which she talks to leading philosophers from around the world on topics related to practical ethics. The podcast and videos are intended for a non-specialist audience.

Katrien is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.

You can watch the videos on the Practical Ethics YouTube Channel or listen on Oxford Podcasts.

Audio

Listen to episode on Oxford Podcasts.

Transcript

Link to SRT file

Professor Dominic Wilkinson

Professor Dominic Wilkinson
Professor of Medical Ethics and Consultant in Newborn Intensive Care
University of Oxford

 

Suggest a topic for the next video!