Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/118406/
Published April 23 2009
Our view: Minnesotans must decide who to save first from flu
Pray it doesn?t happen, but what if it does? What if a major influenza pandemic really does hit, as some have been predicting and warning ? a pandemic like the one in 1918 that sickened 30 percent of the population and killed 30,000 in Minnesota?
Vaccines, antiviral drugs, protective masks, ventilators and other medical resources are being stockpiled, but all would be in limited supply ? and high, desperate demand ? during the ravages of an outbreak.
Who?d be first in line? Who, we shudder to ask, might be sacrificed for the good of the majority?
To begin answering those questions, more than 100 Minnesotans ? working as part of the Minnesota Pandemic Ethics Project (with the Minnesota Department of Health and ethicists from the Minnesota Center for Health Care Ethics and the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics) ? have come up with preliminary recommendations.
Don?t ration based on gender, socioeconomic status, race or citizenship, they suggest. Do ?de-prioritize? people ?imminently and irreversibly dying.? Those and other guidelines are posted for public review at www.ahc.umn.edu/mnpanflu (click on ?preliminary recommendations? at left).
But final decisions about protocols and priorities haven?t been made. And won?t be made until more people weigh in, assuring that ?rationing decisions reflect Minnesotans? values and input,? as pandemic ethics project officials wrote in a statement.
Northern Minnesotans can offer their input in a daylong community forum a week from Saturday, on May 2, at the College of St. Scholastica. Participants (who can sign up at keystone.org/mn/ or by calling Niki Koszalka at
(800) 219-6670) will ponder painful decisions. But their insights are needed and considered so critical each will receive a small stipend for their time.
?Preventing unnecessary death and disease is clearly a key consideration in allocating scarce medical resources during a pandemic,? said forum organizer Dorothy Vawter, the associate director of the Minnesota Center for Health Care Ethics. But also: ?What about the impact of a pandemic on our infrastructure and our ability to keep a society running. What about broader considerations of fairness? And what role should age play in determining how these resources are used.?
There?s much to grapple with. And now. During an outbreak will be no time for anyone to be asking, ?Who decided that?? or ?What do we do?? Minnesotans must decide. And be prepared.
Published April 23 2009
Our view: Minnesotans must decide who to save first from flu
Pray it doesn?t happen, but what if it does? What if a major influenza pandemic really does hit, as some have been predicting and warning ? a pandemic like the one in 1918 that sickened 30 percent of the population and killed 30,000 in Minnesota?
Vaccines, antiviral drugs, protective masks, ventilators and other medical resources are being stockpiled, but all would be in limited supply ? and high, desperate demand ? during the ravages of an outbreak.
Who?d be first in line? Who, we shudder to ask, might be sacrificed for the good of the majority?
To begin answering those questions, more than 100 Minnesotans ? working as part of the Minnesota Pandemic Ethics Project (with the Minnesota Department of Health and ethicists from the Minnesota Center for Health Care Ethics and the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics) ? have come up with preliminary recommendations.
Don?t ration based on gender, socioeconomic status, race or citizenship, they suggest. Do ?de-prioritize? people ?imminently and irreversibly dying.? Those and other guidelines are posted for public review at www.ahc.umn.edu/mnpanflu (click on ?preliminary recommendations? at left).
But final decisions about protocols and priorities haven?t been made. And won?t be made until more people weigh in, assuring that ?rationing decisions reflect Minnesotans? values and input,? as pandemic ethics project officials wrote in a statement.
Northern Minnesotans can offer their input in a daylong community forum a week from Saturday, on May 2, at the College of St. Scholastica. Participants (who can sign up at keystone.org/mn/ or by calling Niki Koszalka at
(800) 219-6670) will ponder painful decisions. But their insights are needed and considered so critical each will receive a small stipend for their time.
?Preventing unnecessary death and disease is clearly a key consideration in allocating scarce medical resources during a pandemic,? said forum organizer Dorothy Vawter, the associate director of the Minnesota Center for Health Care Ethics. But also: ?What about the impact of a pandemic on our infrastructure and our ability to keep a society running. What about broader considerations of fairness? And what role should age play in determining how these resources are used.?
There?s much to grapple with. And now. During an outbreak will be no time for anyone to be asking, ?Who decided that?? or ?What do we do?? Minnesotans must decide. And be prepared.