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- Title
Increased Ethical Burden in Surrogate Decision- Making During COVID-19.
- Authors
Mishkin, Adrienne D.; Allen, Nicole; Hulkower, Adira; Flicker, Laura S.
- Abstract
Surrogate decision makers are called upon to inform medical teams what unconscious and decisionally incapacitated patients would have wanted for themselves. This task poses significant challenges for surrogates as they struggle to determine what the patient they represent would have wanted, which often takes a physical and emotional toll on the surrogate. Surrogates commonly voice hesitancy regarding withholding or withdrawing treatments, leading to the provision of potentially non-beneficial treatments, driving up costs both to the system and to the family, prolonging the dying process, and increasing distress for the family and the medical team. These ethical issues have been highlighted and exacerbated by the contemporary COVID-19 pandemic. Here we explore the unique manifestations of ethical issues surrounding surrogate decision-making in the COVID-19 context, particularly focusing on how triage, communication, time course and isolation impact the ethics of surrogate decision-making.
- Subjects
MEDICAL triage; ETHICS; TERMINALLY ill; ETHICAL decision making; AGE distribution; UNCERTAINTY; RACE; MEDICAL personnel; ADVANCE directives (Medical care); PATIENTS' families; COMMUNICATION; PATIENT-family relations; DECISION making; SOCIAL distancing; COVID-19 pandemic; PASSIVE euthanasia; HEALTH care rationing
- Publication
Journal of Hospital Ethics, 2021, Vol 7, Issue 2, p73
- ISSN
1938-4955
- Publication type
Article