“Ethics in COVID-19 World” with Arthur Caplan and Greg Pence

In Wuhan, China and later, Italy, the healthcare system was rapidly overrun with critically ill patients and insufficient resources to save them all. When the population’s health needs vastly exceeded the system’s capacity, “utilitarian ethics” quickly replaced normal medical ethics; disaster standards of care replaced normal standards of care. Ventilators and drugs in short supply were allocated only to those patients most likely to survive; family members were not allowed to visit dying relatives in the hospital, and CPR was suspended for COVID-19 patients.

Entire countries have been shut down with catastrophic economic consequences to tens of millions of people in an attempt to contain the virus. In each case, the health of the community trumped the needs of the individual. Bioethicists Arthur Caplan and Gregory Pence discuss the complex ethical issues we face in a COVID-19 world.

About Our Guests

Arthur L. Caplan is currently the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor, and founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU School of Medicine in New York City. Dr. Caplan is the author of numerous books including his most recent: Vaccination Ethics and Policy, and, Getting to Good: Research Integrity in Biomedicine.

Gregory E. Pence is a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is the author of numerous books, including the best-selling Medical Ethics textbook, now in its 27th year and eighth edition. His most recent book: Overcoming Addiction: Seven Imperfect Solutions and the End of America's Greatest Epidemic was released in February 2020.