Bakker Marleen, van de Vathorst Suzanne
Erasmus MC, Rotterdam. Afd. Longgeneeskunde.
Contact: Marleen Bakker (
Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2020 Apr 23;164:D5049.
In the late 1970s, the American bioethicists Tom Beauchamp and James Childress described the four ethical principles that should guide a physician's actions in individual patient care. These principles are: (a) respect for autonomy; (b) doing well (beneficence); (c) not harming (non-maleficence); and (d) justice. In many countries, the global outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 has led to overloaded healthcare systems due to large numbers of COVID-19 patients. In order to provide care to this high volume of patients, far-reaching measures are taken that affect everyone. These measures are not taken from an individual patient's perspective but in the interest of public health; nonetheless, they can directly affect the individual patient's interests. This article examines the extent to which Beauchamp and Childress' ethical principles may be compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic.
20世纪70年代末，美国生物伦理学家汤姆·博尚和詹姆斯·奇尔德雷斯阐述了指导医生在个体患者护理中行为的四项伦理原则。这些原则是：（a）尊重自主权；（b）行善（ beneficence）；（c）不伤害（ non-maleficence）；以及（d）公正。在许多国家，SARS-CoV-2的全球爆发导致大量COVID-19患者使医疗系统不堪重负。为了照顾如此大量的患者，采取了影响到每个人的深远措施。这些措施并非从个体患者的角度出发，而是出于公共卫生利益；尽管如此，它们可能会直接影响个体患者的利益。本文探讨了在COVID-19大流行期间，博尚和奇尔德雷斯的伦理原则可能在多大程度上受到损害。
