The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Month of Bioethics in Finland

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openAccess

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Journal Title

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Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2021-01

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Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

114-122

Series

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Volume 30, issue 1

Abstract

The role of bioethicists amidst crises like the COVID-19 pandemic is not well defined. As professionals in the field, they should respond, but how? The observation of the early days of pandemic confinement in Finland showed that moral philosophers with limited experience in bioethics tended to apply their favorite theories to public decisions, with varying results. Medical ethicists were more likely to lend support to the public authorities by soothing or descriptive accounts of the solutions assumed. These are approaches that Tuija Takala has called the firefighting and window dressing models of bioethics. Human rights lawyers drew attention to the flaws of the government’s regulative thinking. Critical bioethicists offered analyses of the arguments presented and the moral and political theories that could be used as the basis of good and acceptable decisions.

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Keywords

COVID-19, pandemic, bioethics, human rights, utilitarianism, doctrine of double effect

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Citation

Haÿry, M 2021, ' The COVID-19 Pandemic : A Month of Bioethics in Finland ', Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 114-122 . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963180120000432