INTENSIVE CARE TRIHAGE IN COVID19 PANDEMIA:
NORMATIVE ANALYSIS OF CLINICAL ETHICS GUIDES
Research Article
Since the first weeks when Covid-19 spread and started to be on the agenda all over the world, many countries have begun to take the problems that may be caused by the epidemic from different perspectives such as sociological, psychological, economic, legal, political and ethical. The sudden and rapid increase in the number of patients and discussions on how to distribute the medical resources that will be insufficient in the face of this increase have also started. In this connection, the application of triage in intensive care units has been discussed by the authorized ethical committees of many countries, intensive care, reanimation or anesthesia associations, and various guidelines on triage practices have been published. In this study, normative analysis of the contents of the guidelines published by the intensive care associations of Germany, Austria, Belgium, England, Switzerland and Italy on triage practices and the evaluation of their operation in practice will be made. Even if the countries subject to study come from the same cultural tradition (Westernism, European, Christianity, etc.), they have different ethical practices in triage. In this context, the ethical problems of triage practices will be examined in line with different practices and recommendations in countries.