{"id":10942,"date":"2021-05-10T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T01:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=10942"},"modified":"2022-01-31T20:22:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T04:22:09","slug":"the-ethical-minefield-of-covid-19-vaccination-informed-consent-and-the-obligations-of-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=10942","title":{"rendered":"The ethical minefield of COVID-19 vaccination: Informed consent and the obligations of doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Australian Broadcasting Corporation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret Somerville<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised a multitude of complex ethical issues \u2014 and new ones present themselves daily. These issues, including those related to vaccination, arise at four levels: micro or individual (for example, when a doctor vaccinates a patient); meso or institutional (regarding, for instance, a hospital\u2019s or aged care residence\u2019s policy on vaccinating staff); macro or societal ( a government\u2019s decisions or public health regulations governing distribution of vaccines and access to vaccination); and mega or global (such as a nation\u2019s obligations to provide vaccines to those in developing countries, which are without vaccines).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many COVID-19 related decision-making situations at each of these levels, decision makers face what is called in bioethics a \u201cworld of competing sorrows\u201d \u2014 that is, decision making in which there is no \u201cno harm\u201d option, but in which, instead, they must choose to whom harm will be allocated. The ethical difficulties are exacerbated when the harms and benefits do not accrue to the same people or, at least, not in equal measure. A striking example of such a situation at the macro or societal level would be the use of \u201clockdowns\u201d, when the choice is between protecting public health and inflicting serious economic harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I want to focus on here is a particular micro- level issue: that of a healthcare professional\u2019s obligation to obtain a person\u2019s informed consent to COVID-19 vaccination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failure to obtain an informed consent to, or an informed refusal of, medical treatment \u2014 which includes vaccination \u2014 is medical negligence (medical malpractice). Informed consent to or refusal of medical treatment has three requirements: competence, information, and voluntariness. There is a wealth of research on what is needed to establish each element, but here is a brief summary. . . Continue reading<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian Broadcasting Corporation Margaret Somerville The COVID-19 pandemic has raised a multitude of complex ethical issues \u2014 and new ones present themselves daily. These issues, including those related to vaccination, arise at four levels: micro or individual (for example, when a doctor vaccinates a patient); meso or institutional (regarding, for instance, a hospital\u2019s or aged … Continue reading “The ethical minefield of COVID-19 vaccination: Informed consent and the obligations of doctors”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[508,3303],"tags":[3979,4056,225],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-10942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethical-commentary","category-vaccinations","tag-covid","tag-informed-consent","tag-margaret-somerville"],"yoast_head":"\r\nThe ethical minefield of COVID-19 vaccination: Informed consent and the obligations of doctors - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What I want to focus on here is a healthcare professional\u2019s obligation to obtain a person\u2019s informed consent to COVID-19 vaccination.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.consciencelaws.org\/ethics\/ethics062.aspx\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The ethical minefield of COVID-19 vaccination: Informed consent and the obligations of doctors - 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