Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 17, 2025

Microbial Communities in Nature and Laboratory - Interview
Published on: May 28, 2007
The Future of Bioethics: It Shouldn't Take a Pandemic
Abstract:
The Covid-19 pandemic has concentrated bioethics attention on the "lifeboat ethics" of rationing and fair allocation of scarce medical resources, such as testing, intensive care unit beds, and ventilators. This focus drives ethics resources away from persistent and systemic problems-in particular, the structural injustices that give rise to health disparities affecting disadvantaged communities of color. Bioethics, long allied with academic medicine and highly attentive to individual decision-making, has largely neglected its responsibility to address these difficult "upstream" issues. It is time to broaden our teaching, research, and practice to match the breadth of the field in order to help address these significant societal inequities and unmet health needs.
Related Concept Videos
Ethics and Bioethics
Microorganisms in Medicine and Therapeutics
Issues And Trends In Healthcare Delivery System
Cost Containment
Payment for healthcare services has historically promoted adoption of costly and often unnecessary or inefficient...
What is Genetic Engineering?
Biodiversity and Human Values
CRISPR

