Question

The conversation was interesting but we must get closer to a real challenge, namely the Corona virus that has us all living under a stay in place regulation. This virus has affected the population of the world and nearly caused medical systems to collapse. Indeed, the number of critically ill patients in Italy overwhelmed the capacity of the hospitals. The demand for urgent care was so great that the Italian government announced that patients 75 and older would not receive treatment .

The questions that must be answered are simple: 1) Was it ethical to deny medical treatment to the elderly? 2) If you were the leader of the government would you make the same decision or something else?

Answer 1

It is a war like situation, and obviously the peace time ethics and war time ethics are ought to be different. In normal times this would sound grossly unethical to leave elderly people to their fate, but here, if the resources are scarce, the ones whose lives cost more to the nation and the society, needs to be saved first. For example, if the choice is to be made between a senior who has lived his /her life peacefully and has experienced all aspects of life, coming to full circle, and a young person who is a sole breadwinner of his /her family, the ethical choice will be later, due to the fact that his /her death will spell doom to his family, whose life will never be the same again, which is not the case with the elderly person, who has completed all his /her responsibilities. Although death of a dear one is after all death, and is painful, irrespective of the age of deceased, but here we have to choose between bigger pain and smaller pain, and the choice will be later.

If I were the leader of government, I would have tried to seggregate the patients according to the degree of care needed to a person irrepsective of the age. Obviously, the elders will need greater care, and they need to be chosen over the ones who are less needy, but while choosing between two critically ill patients ( who will surely die if don't get care), the decision would be to save the one whose death will have far reaching impact on the family ( loss of livelihood, financal crisis ) over the one with which it is not the case. In such cases, the elderly will be the one to be left.