Article Text
Abstract
In March 2020, the Government produced a document entitled “Responding to COVID-19: The Ethical Framework for Adult Social Care” (‘The Ethical Framework’). In this article, we summarise the key features of the proposed ethical framework and subject it to critical analysis. We highlight three primary issues. First, the emphasis placed on autonomy as the primary ethical principle. We argue if ever there was a context in which autonomy should dominate the ethical analysis, this is not it. Second, we examine the interface between ethics and law which is largely overlooked in the document. Finally, we explore the surprising lack of attention paid to the concept of responsibility and communal obligations within the framework.
- allocation of health care resources
- autonomy
- law
- philosophical ethics
- regulation
This article is made freely available for use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.
https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usageStatistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Twitter @charlotte_elves
Contributors The authors are the sole contributors.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement No data are available
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Principlism and communitarianism
- Double effect: a useful rule that alone cannot justify hastening death
- Will international human rights subsume medical ethics? Intersections in the UNESCO Universal Bioethics Declaration
- How individual ethical frameworks shape physician trainees’ experiences providing end-of-life care: a qualitative study
- How should doctors approach patients? A Confucian reflection on personhood
- Is UNESCO’s Undergraduate Bioethics Integrated Curriculum (Medical) fit for purpose?
- The revised International Code of Medical Ethics: an exercise in international professional ethical self-regulation
- COVID-19 pandemic, the scarcity of medical resources, community-centred medicine and discrimination against persons with disabilities
- Ethics in epidemiology and public health I. Technical terms
- Case-based seminars in medical ethics education: how medical students define and discuss moral problems