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Top1. Introduction: Utilitarian Ethics And Covid-19 Triage
ICU triage is a screening process for quick patient admission and identifies patients needing intensive care for immediate treatment. It aims to utilize resources in emergencies effectively. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has engaged the classification and allocation of scarce health resources as the focus of discussions on bioethics. Multiple expert participants in the medical system develop triage protocols and guidelines, and there is a dispute over whether to use some specific inclusion or exclusion criteria. Who should have priority if they have a similar prognosis? Should we prioritize the vulnerable, young population and healthcare professionals in society? Or is a random selection a fair standard? It is not easy to get ventilator support or secure the ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic. The healthcare resources are limited, and the demand for facilities outnumbers the infected patients. The patients, families, healthcare professionals, and administrators struggle to resolve an emotionally challenging issue. The utilitarian ethical theory that determines good and evil by focusing on outcomes to rationalize decisions makes it easy for decision-makers to resolve complex problems. Utilitarianism believes that the most ethical choice will benefit the most significant number. It is a standard moral method of reasoning used to explain costs and benefits. However, it is difficult to predict whether the outcome of an action will be good or bad. It is a limitation of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism tries to explain values in the form of justice and individual rights. Utilitarianism is a rational approach to determining good and evil, but with some limitations.
The purpose of triage regulation is to reduce the burden on decision-makers. Screening identifies patients who need to allocate critical resources as needed. Solid and transparent evaluation criteria are essential for making decisions (Emanuel, et al., 2020a). It should reflect the dignity of the patient and a fair distribution of vital resources and maximize the benefit to society following the expected benefits of quality life. Allocation of scarce resources following ethical guidelines' provides moral justification for healthcare professionals. Decision-making and patient triage processes should be transparent, comprehensive, evidence-based, and support the process of appeals by new evidence or expert opinion (Tanzi, et al., 2020; De Panflis, et al., 2019). Other ethical principles include autonomy that emphasizes freedom, self-determination and making decisions about one's own life without interference from others. Hedonism advocates happiness or the absence of pain as an essential principle that determines ethical behavior. Hedonism is consequentialism, which takes many forms. For example, normative hedonism is considered happiness as a motivation to people.
On the other hand, happiness and pain derive decisions in hedonic ethics calculus. Egoistic hedonism requires people to consider only their joy in making decisions. In contrast, altruistic hedonism believes that creating happiness for all is the best way to measure whether the action is ethical. Regardless of the type of hedonism, the critic believes that it is a moral guide, ignoring all other values such as freedom or justice when evaluating good and evil.