COVID-19 and global bioethics

Main Article Content

Henk ten Have

Abstract




The global phenomenon of a pandemic has reactivated the notion of global bioethics, arguing that mainstream bioethics insufficiently addresses the pandemic experience. This experience highlights connectedness, differential vulnerability, unexpectedness and unpreparedness. During the pandemic, ethical concerns are framed in a specific way. This article examines three ways of framing: with the notions of exceptionality, controllability, and binarity. It then discusses the framework of global bioethics providing a broader and inclusive perspective on the pandemic experience. A fundamental notion in this framework is relationality. It also accentuates that individual and common interests are not opposed. A third consideration in this perspective is solidarity. A global bioethics framework is an incentive to rethink globalization, global governance, public health, and healthcare. If bioethics as a social and global endeavor mobilizes the moral imagination in order to expand the scope of moral concern by applying the human capacity to empathize, it crucially contributes to enhancing social life and civilization.




Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

PLUMX Metrics

Article Details

How to Cite
ten Have, H. (2022). COVID-19 and global bioethics. Medicina Y Ética, 33(1), 19–83. https://doi.org/10.36105/mye.2022v33n1.01
Section
Articles

References

Ho A, Dascalu I. Global disparity and solidarity in a pandemic. Hastings Center Report. 2020; 50(3): 65-67. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.1138

Fins JJ. Covid-19 makes clear that bioethics must confront health disparities. The Hastings Center. 9 de julio de 2020. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/covid-19-makes-clear-that-bioethics-must-confront-health-disparities/

Venkatapuram S. Covid-19 and the global ethics freefall. The Hastings Center. 19 de marzo de 2020. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/covid-19-and-the-global-ethics-freefall/

Cohen J. Individual freedom or public health? A false choice in the Covid era. The Hastings Center. 9 de junio de 2020. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/indivi-dual-freedom-or-public-health-a-false-choice-in-the-covid-era/

Lewis J, Schuklenk U. Bioethics met its Covid-19 Waterloo: The doctor knows best again. Bioethics. 2021; 35: 3-5. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12840

Chadwick R. Covid-19 and the possibility of solidarity. Bioethics. 2020; 34(7): 637. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12813

Klugman C. The cult of autonomy and why bioethics needs to become more communal. Bioethics. Net. 24 de septiembre de 2020. http://www.bioethics.net/2020/09/the-cult-of-autonomy-and-why-bioethics-needs-to-become-more-communal/

Wolf SM. What has Covid-19 exposed in Bioethics? Four Myths. Hastings Cen- ter Report. 2021; 51(3): 3-4. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.1254

Ravitsky V. Post-Covid bioethics. The Hastings Center. 20 de mayo de 2020. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/post-covid-bioethics/

Gostin LO, Moon S, Meier BM. Reimagining global health governance in the age of Covid-19. American Journal of Public Health. 2020; 110(11): 1615-1619. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305933

Chadwick R. Covid-19 and the possibility of solidarity. Bioethics. 2020; 34(7): 637. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12813

Martins AA. Global bioethics in a pandemic: A dialogical approach. Health Care Ethics USA. 2021. https://www.chausa.org/publications/health-care-ethics-usa/article/winter-2021/global-bioethics-in-a-pandemic-a-dialogical-approach

Heilinger J, Venkatapuram S, Voss M and Wild V. Bringing ethics into the global coronavirus response. The Hastings Center. 22 de junio de 2020. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/bringing-ethics-into-the-global-coronavirus-response/

Potter VR. Bioethics: Bridge to the future. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1971.

Ingold T. 2000. Globes and spheres. The topology of environmentalism. In In- gold T, editor. The perception of the environment. Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London and New York: Routledge. 2000; 209-218.

Cha I. The mundialization of home in the age of globalization. Towards a trans- cultural ethics. Mûnchen: LIT Verlag; 2012.

Hawkins D. Differential occupational risk for COVID19 and other infection expo- sure according to race and ethnicity. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. 2020; 63(9): 817-820. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.23145

Kiaghadi A, Rifai HS, Liaw W. Assessing COVID-19 risk, vulnerability and infec- tion prevalence in communities. PLoS ONE. 2020; 15(10): e0241166. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241166

Cleveland Manchanda E, Couillard C, Sivashanker K. Inequity in crisis stan- dards of care. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020; 383(4): e16. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2011359

Horton R. The COVID-19 catastrophe. What’s gone wrong and how to stop it happening again. Cambridge: Polity, 2020.

Chik H, Baptista E. Chile COVID-19 vaccination drive adds to Sinovac efficacy data. South China Morning Post. 9 de abril de 2021. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3128886/chile-covid-19-vaccination-drive-adds-sinovac-effi-cacy-data

WHO (World Health Organization). Malaria. Key facts, 2021.

WHO (World Health Organization). Tuberculosis. Key facts, 2020.

WHO (World Health Organization). Dengue and severe dengue. Geneva: WHO, 2020.

WHO (World Health Organization). Ten threats to global health in 2019. https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019

Ryan F. Virusphere. Ebola, AIDS, influenza and the hidden world of the virus. London: William Collins, 2019.

Honigsbaum M. The pandemic century. One hundred years of panic, hysteria, and hubris. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.

Mackenzie D. WHO-19. The pandemic that never should have happened, and how to stop it. London: The Bridge Street Press, 2020.

Rosa H. The uncontrollability of the world. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020.

Rosa H. The uncontrollability of the world. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020.

Symons X. Should we sacrifice older people to save the economy? BioEdge. 28 de marzo de 2020. https://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/should-we-sacrifice-ol-der-people-to-save-the-economy/13377

Childs BH, Vearrier I. A journal of the COVID-19 (plague) year. HEC Forum. 2021; 33: 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-021-09448-6

Williams A. Intergenerational equity: An exploration of the ‘fair innings’ argu- ment. Health Economics. 1997; 6: 117-132. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1050(199703)6:2<117::AID-HEC256>3.0.CO;2-B

Fisher A. Fair innings? Against healthcare rationing in favour of the young over the elderly. Studies in Christian Ethics. 2013; 26(4): 431-450. https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946813492918

Bramstedt KA. Age-based health care allocation as a wedge separating the person from the patient and commodifying medicine. Reviews in Clinical Gerontology. 2001; 11: 185-188. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959259801011297

De Medeiros K. A COVID-19 side effect: Virulent resurgence of ageism. The Hastings Center. 14 de mayo de 2020. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/a-covid-19-side-effect-virulent-resurgence-of-ageism/

Peisah C, Byrnes A, Doron I, Dark M, Quinn G. Advocacy for the human rights of older people in the COVID pandemic and beyond: a call to mental health profes- sionals. International Psychogeriatrics. 2020; 32(10):1199-1204. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610220001076

Kuylen MNI, Kim SY, Keene AR, Owen GS. Should age matter in COVID-19 tria- ge? A deliberative study. Journal of Medical Ethics. 2021; 47: 291-295. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2020-107071

Marcel, G. Homo viator. Introduction to a metaphysic of hope. New York: Harper & Row, 1962.

Kaminsky C. 2020. Normality «ex post»: social conditions of moral responsibi- lity. In Woesler M, Sass HM, editors. Medicine and ethics in times of corona. Zürich: LIT Verlag. 2020; 63-74.

Mackenzie C, Stoljar N. Relational autonomy: feminist perspectives on auto- nomy, agency, and the social self. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Gintis H. Individuality and entanglement: The moral and materials bases of so- cial life. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400883165

WeCope (World Emergency COVID-19 Pandemic Ethics Committee). State- ment on individual autonomy and social responsibility within a public health emer- gency. In Woesler M, Sass HM, Editores. Medicine and ethics in times of corona. Zürich: LIT Verlag. 2020; 419-425.

Bieri P. Human dignity: A way of living. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017.

Ten Have H. Global bioethics. An introduction. London and New York: Routledge; 2016. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315648378

WHO (World Health Organization). WHO Director-General’s statement on Tan- zania and COVID-19. 2021. https://www.who.int/news/item/20-02-2021-who-direc-tor-general-s-statement-on-tanzania-and-covid-19

Eurasia Group. Ending the COVID-19 pandemic: The need for a global approach. November 25, 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/act-ac-celerator/2020-summary-analysis-of-ten-donor-countries-11_26_2020-v2.pdf

UNESCO. Statement on COVID-19: Ethical considerations from a global perspec- tive. Paris: UNESCO, 2020. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373115

European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies. Statement on European solidarity and the protection of fundamental rights in the Covid-19 pandemic. April 2, 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/research_and_in-novation/ege/ec_rtd_ege-statement-covid-19.pdf

Dawson A, Emanuel EJ, Parker M, Smith MJ and Voo TC. Key ethical con- cepts and their application to Covid-19 research. Public Health Ethics. 2020; 13(2): 127-132. https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phaa017

Pontifical Academy for Life. Vaccine for all. 20 points for a fairer and healthier world. 29 de diciembre de 2020. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2020/12/29/0697/01628.html#notaing

Jennings B, Dawson A. Solidarity in the moral imagination of bioethics. Has- tings Center Report. 2015; 45(5): 31-38. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.490

Brown G, Susskind D. International cooperation during the Covid-19 pande- mic. Oxford Review of Economic Policy. 2020; 36(S1): S64-S76. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/graa025

West-Oram PGN, Buyx A. Global health solidarity. Public Health Ethics. 2017; 10(2): 212-224. https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phw021