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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 .
Brief reflections on lessons and questions posed by Covid‐19 for health, medicine, and bioethics
Lifeboat ethics has again become the predominant focus of U.S. bioethicists. Essays on fair allocation and rationing of medical resources are proliferating. These analyses offer rival notions of who should be helped when not all can be helped. This discussion is important. Yet there are other, larger issues being neglected; lifeboat ethics is driving ethical resources...