Eetilised valikud COVID-19 pandeemia tingimustes

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented interest in ethics, as societies are confronted with difficult ethical choices: life versus economic well-being, individual freedom versus health, free movement of people versus public health. All democratic societies have witnessed disagreements concerning restrictions to the free movement of people, vaccination policies, and distribution of healthcare resources. The adopted policies and formulated guidelines showed that different countries prioritized values differently. Amongst the most challenging ethical debates during the COVID-19 pandemic were attempts to formulate clinical ethical guidelines on how limited medical resources and services ought to be allocated should the need exceed availability. This article provides an overview of the process of compiling the clinical ethics recommendations for Estonian hospitals concerning the allocation of limited healthcare resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article describes the stakeholder involvement, engagements with comparable international documents, main internal debates and lessons learned for the future.