COVID-19, Scarce Resources and Priority Ethics: Why Should Maximizers Be More Conservative?

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Health Economics
• Medical Ethics

Background:

• The principle of maximization, aiming to save lives and life-years, is a cornerstone of healthcare ethics.
• Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic highlight resource scarcity, intensifying ethical dilemmas in patient care.
• Reallocating resources already assigned to patients presents unique challenges to standard consequentialist ethics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically evaluate the standard consequentialist maximization principle in healthcare.
• To propose and advocate for a deontological version of the maximization principle.
• To offer improved ethical guidance for resource allocation in health crises.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis and thought experiments.
• Examination of moral intuitions through counterexamples.
• Philosophical argumentation for an alternative ethical framework.

Main Results:

• The standard consequentialist maximization principle can lead to intuitively immoral outcomes in specific scenarios.
• A deontological approach to maximization avoids the pitfalls of the consequentialist version.
• The proposed deontological principle retains the benefits of consequentialism without its ethical drawbacks.

Conclusions:

• The deontological maximization principle offers a more robust ethical framework for healthcare decision-making.
• This principle provides superior guidance for health professionals facing resource scarcity.
• The findings are particularly relevant for navigating complex ethical choices during public health emergencies.