Zohny, H. orcid.org/0000-0002-7734-2186, Davies, B. orcid.org/0000-0003-4612-7894 and Wilkinson, D. orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-8633 (2022) Affirmative action in healthcare resource allocation: vaccines, ventilators and race. Bioethics, 36 (9). pp. 970-977. ISSN 0269-9702
Abstract
This article is about the potential justification for deploying some form of affirmative action (AA) in the context of healthcare, and in particular in relation to the pandemic. We call this Affirmative Action in healthcare Resource Allocation (AARA). Specifically, we aim to investigate whether the rationale and justifications for using prioritization policies based on race in education and employment apply in a healthcare setting, and in particular to the COVID-19 pandemic. We concentrate in this article on vaccines and ventilators because these are both highly scarce resources in the pandemic, and there has been a need to develop policies for allocating them. However, as will become clear, the ethical considerations relating to them may diverge. We first set out two rationales for AAs and what they might entail in a healthcare setting. We then consider some disanalogies between AA and AARA, as well as the different implications of AARA for allocating ventilators as opposed to vaccines. Finally, we consider some of the practical ways in which AARA could be implemented, and conclude by responding to some key objections.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. Bioethics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | COVID-19; affirmative action; distributive justice; race; Humans; Pandemics; COVID-19; Ventilators, Mechanical; Public Policy; Delivery of Health Care; Resource Allocation; Vaccines |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Philosophy (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Dec 2023 12:58 |
Last Modified: | 20 Dec 2023 12:58 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/bioe.13067 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:206822 |
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Filename: Affirmative action in healthcare resource allocation Vaccines, ventilators and race.pdf
Licence: CC-BY 4.0