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Pandemic prioritarianism
1Philosophy, Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark lasseni@sdu.dk.
Journal of Medical Ethics
|February 5, 2021
Summary
Prioritarianism in healthcare prioritisation suggests focusing on the worse-off. This analysis examines social justice, severity, and age-weighted prioritarianism, finding special concern for the vulnerable during pandemics is crucial.
Area of Science:
- Health policy
- Ethics
- Distributive justice
Background:
- Prioritarianism is a plausible principle for healthcare prioritization, emphasizing benefits for the worse-off.
- The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted challenges in healthcare priority setting.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and analyze three interpretations of prioritarianism: social justice, severity, and age-weighted.
- To evaluate these interpretations in the context of pandemic consequences on healthcare priority setting.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of prioritarianism and its variants.
- Application of prioritarian principles to pandemic-related healthcare priority setting scenarios.
Main Results:
- Strong prioritarian reasons support prioritizing the vulnerable and socially disadvantaged during pandemics.
- Illness severity is important but should not outweigh priority for the socially disadvantaged.
- Age-weighted prioritarianism's maximization rationale conflicts with core prioritarianism, making it unsuitable for COVID-19.
Conclusions:
- Social justice prioritarianism offers a robust framework for pandemic response.
- Healthcare priority setting must balance illness severity with the needs of the socially disadvantaged.
- Age-weighted prioritarianism is an inadequate approach for pandemic prioritization.
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