Currents in Contemporary Ethics

Abstract

There is widespread concern among public health and emergency response officials that there could be a shortage of health care providers in a public health emergency. At least the following three factors could cause an inadequate supply of physicians, nurses, and other health care providers: (1) the severity of the emergency might greatly increase the demand for health services and outstrip the available supply; (2) health care providers might become unavailable because of their own high rates of illness, as was the case in the SARS epidemic; and (3) many health care providers might not report for duty for personal, family, or professional reasons.One way of addressing the shortage is to encourage health care providers from unaffected areas or parts of the country to volunteer their services. A variety of measures have been enacted to facilitate the use of such volunteers.

No protocol and no liability: a call for COVID crisis guidelines that protect vulnerable populations

“…Historically, charitable hospitals have tried to claim total immunity from civil or criminal liability stemming from malpractice suits by arguing that their charitable trusts were designed to be used to continue treating patients for free, rather than to compensate poor patients who had suffered from negligent treatment ( Silva v. Providence Hospital of Oakland, England v. Hospital of Good Samaritan, Wilmington General Hospital v. Manlove ) [ 27–29 ]. In the landmark case Tunkl v. Regents of the University of California (1963), the court decided that UCLA Medical Center could not force indigent patients to sign a contract releasing UCLA from all malpractice liability in exchange for treatment, establishing that the most vulnerable in our population shall not have their rights denied [ 30 , 31 ]. The majority opinion explains that ‘public interest’ is not something that can be narrowly defined; in “ the integrated…society of today, structured upon mutual dependency….prearranged exculpation from [a hospital’s] negligence…necessarily affects the public interest ” [ 30 ].…”

From the Double Helix to Precision Genomics: A Comprehensive Review of DNA and Its Transformative Role in Biomedical Sciences

“…Research in these areas continues to advance, with the potential to revolutionize precision medicine, drug delivery, and biocomputing [98]. As we gain a deeper understanding of DNA's properties and engineering capabilities, we can expect transformative breakthroughs and new applications that were once thought impossible [99].…”

Physicians Professional Immunity in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Problems and Solutions

“…Addressing the issue of volunteer's immunity during emergencies, Rothstein refers to care altered standards during a state of emergency (Rothstein, 2010). Tingle argues that the definition of care standards is flexible enough that isn`t necessary to introduce the altered variant; care standards themselves imply the need for context adaptations (Tingle, 2020).…”

“…It usually doesn`t apply in case of gross negligence, criminal attitude or intoxication. Given the existence of a significant level of protection applicable to volunteers, liability arises only in the case of `willful, without conscience, grossly negligent, reckless, criminal conduct or an intentional crime` (Rothstein, 2010) a solution for professional immunity could be its use as a reference level for personnel involved in the fight against COVID-19. This rule can be clearly extended to doctors required to practice in another specialization.…”