Epilogue: Critical Care During a Pandemic – A Shift from Deontology to Utilitarianism?

Healthcare crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, can lead to a pronounced national-and sometimes supranational-discrepancy between the need for medical care and the ability of the healthcare systems to provide such care. Such need can, among others, consist of personnel, pharmaceuticals, equipment, nutrition, transportation capacity, or reinforcements in general. In the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, personnel and intensive care beds with ventilators have turned out to be the immediate specific bottlenecks. Although all patients need to be given a fair chance to receive medical care, the treating teams need to selectively allot the resources available and hence must make prioritization decisions. This chapter formulates recommendations as to the allocation of scarce resources. It also discusses whether the focus of care should shift from patient-centered deontology to population-centered utilitarianism in healthcare crises.