Tragic choices. Criteria for “triage” of Covid-19 patients in need for intensive care

BY THOMAS GUTMANN

ABSTRACT – In the present paper, the Author stresses the point that far from being a state of emergency where law and legal principles are suspended, Triage is a legal question to be faced with formal criteria. Every form of consequentialist thinking adopting different kind of material criteria, such those embraced in the guidelines drawn up by national medical societies in order to manage the pandemic, by necessarily involving a discrimination against fragile patients is incompatible with the basic principle of fundamental equality of human lives. The Author particularly focuses on the German case, where for its special constitutional tradition this basic principle is strongly avowed.

KEYWORDS – Covid-19, Triage, Utilitarian reasoning, Rule of law, Right to life, Human Dignity

SCARICA IL DOCUMENTO INTEGRALE