“Shortages of supply can result in triage of patients suffering from severe cases of COVID-19 and thus force a life or death decision.”
INTERCULTURAL KNOWLEDGE
Together with international experts, medical ethicist Mathias Wirth has prepared a statement on avoiding triage of patients suffering from severe cases of COVID-19.
Experts from Yale University, King’s College London, Charité Berlin and Essen University Hospital prepared a statement on these difficult decisions – triage means favoring some COVID-19 patients over others depending on urgency and prognosis. The statement was published in the “American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB)”, the most frequently cited scientific journal in the entire field of ethics, and was well received internationally.
The experts warn against the possibility of prematurely implementing triage; even though triage allows for decisions based on fairness in extreme situations, it leads to significant strain on the affected parties, relatives and medical personnel. “The triage decisions in the epicenters of the first wave brought great suffering to patients, relatives and medical personnel. This clearly shows that current judgments of justice give too little consideration to moral problems,” says Mathias Wirth.
In order to avoid such situations, every effort must be made to transfer seriously ill patients to other hospitals without shortages of supply – if necessary, across country borders, according to the authors. Wirth believes that, “There is no real and legitimate triage situation as long as treatment spaces are available elsewhere.”
In concrete terms, Mathias Wirth’s team of researchers recommend increased regional, national and even international collaboration in intensive care for COVID-19 patients in preparation for future waves of infection.
The Institute of Systematic Theology (IST) in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Bern considers it to be its task to reflect critically and interdisciplinarily on the doctrines of Christianity, including interfaith links. In addition to medical ethics, the Ethics Department research focuses on research into the relationship between transgender, theology and ethics, as well as sexualized violence, for example.