[Ethical principles compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic?]

Bakker, Marleen; van de Vathorst, Suzanne

In the late 1970s, the American bioethicists Tom Beauchamp and James Childress described the four ethical principles that should guide a physician's actions in individual patient care. These principles are: (a) respect for autonomy; (b) doing well (beneficence); (c) not harming (non-maleficence); and (d) justice. In many countries, the global outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 has led to overloaded healthcare systems due to large numbers of COVID-19 patients. In order to provide care to this high volume of patients, far-reaching measures are taken that affect everyone. These measures are not taken from an individual patient's perspective but in the interest of public health; nonetheless, they can directly affect the individual patient's interests. This article examines the extent to which Beauchamp and Childress' ethical principles may be compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic.