An 十大菠菜台子威廉博蒙特医学院 教授去了 《十大菠菜软件》 in defense of medical professionals making difficult life-and-death decisions in the time of COVID-19.
杰森沃瑟曼, Ph.D., 副教授, 基础医学研究室和儿科研究室, OUWB, wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in the April 1 issue of the paper.
他的信，”分诊是紧急情况下的道德选择，这是对3月26日发表的一篇题为《配给医疗是向死亡投降.”
那篇文章是由艾伦·C. 居尔措, a senior research scholar in the Princeton University’s Council of the Humanities and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, asserts that there should be more emphasis on manufacturing ventilators and less on developing plans for how the existing supply will be used.
“People have become too accustomed to taking the easy way out of dilemmas, too comfortable with making excuses for killing when the only offense of those we kill is the possibility of inconvenience,圭尔佐在信中写道 杂志.
“美国人比他们强，”圭尔佐继续说. “呼吸机制造起来并不简单, but neither were Spitfire fighter planes at the beginning of the Battle of Britain. 即兴发挥，创新，想象.”
Wasserman said he generally took issue with 居尔措 essentially minimizing the difficult decisions that medical providers are having to make at this time — as the number of people with COVID-19 grows and the quantity of available ventilators decreases.
“I thought he was not only sidestepping the difficulties of having to make those decisions, but that it was offensive to those on the frontlines to suggest they are ‘retreating to death’ when they are forced to make them,沃瑟曼说.
我写的一行字, 但是编辑剪掉了, put it: He's basically just describing the water to those who are drowning in it.”
通过回应居尔措的专栏, Wasserman said he “hopes to have suggested 这是sues of justice and fairness are some of the most difficult that we face because we want to live in a world where there is enough of everything for everyone.”
“但这次大流行打破了这种幻想，”沃瑟曼说. “I always warn the students that when it comes to questions about scarcity, 人们有一种强烈的冲动，想要摆脱它们. 但这让我们不必面对棘手的问题. 当我们再也摆脱不了的时候, 如果我们没有想清楚如何处理他们, 那我们的处境就很糟糕了.
Wasserman said he also wants people “to understand that if we don't create a system for fairly distributing scarce resources, 这是, 默认情况下, 我们还可以选择如何分配它们, 只是它会随机进行, 会产生更糟的结果, 更多令人遗憾的结果.”
“I want people to understand that no one is enjoying having to make these tough decisions,沃瑟曼说. “每个人都希望我们不是在这种情况下. 但我们是，我们必须面对它. Doing so isn't a retreat as 居尔措 suggests, it's an act of moral courage.”
的 topic of rationing ventilators has gained increasing attention as the pandemic grows. 的 华盛顿邮报》例如，最近有一篇题为“Hospitals consider universal do-not-resuscitate orders for coronavirus patients.”
LifeSite新闻等反堕胎网站.网站以诸如“Experts: Universal do-not-resuscitate orders are unethical, un-American, unnecessary.”
但瓦瑟曼, who has been helping craft ethics guidelines and conducting ethics consultations for local health organizations, said such discussions in the media don’t necessarily capture the reality of the tough decisions.
“This has been such a distressing time for health care workers and the ethicists that are involved in having to plan for running out of life-saving medical equipment and supplies. I don't know anyone who is not approaching this with solemnity,” said Wasserman. “No one wants to be in this position, but we have to make hard choices to avoid even worse outcomes.”
他说很高兴他的信发表在 杂志 because he believes it helps provide balance to the discussion and represents “the ethical work that physicians and ethicists are doing right now to the public.”
“的re is going to be a lot of distress and trauma as a result of having to make these decisions and we don't need people piling on, particularly when their criticisms don't match the reality of the situation,他说. “I'm happy to be able to contribute in some small way to shaping that narrative in a more positive direction.”
For more information, contact Andrew Dietderich, marketing writer, OUWB, at (电子邮件保护).
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