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Article
Against Personal Ventilator Reallocation
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
  • Joel Michael Reynolds, Kennedy Institute of Ethics
  • Laura Guidry-Grimes, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
  • Katie Savin, University of California, Berkeley
ORCiD
Katie Savin: 0000-0001-8155-0749
Department
Social Work
Abstract

The COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease of 2019) pandemic has led to intense conversations about ventilator allocation and reallocation during a crisis standard of care. Multiple voices in the media and multiple state guidelines mention reallocation as a possibility. Drawing upon a range of neuroscientific, phenomenological, ethical, and sociopolitical considerations, the authors argue that taking away someone's personal ventilator is a direct assault on their bodily and social integrity. They conclude that personal ventilators should not be part of reallocation pools and that triage protocols should be immediately clarified to explicitly state that personal ventilators will be protected in all cases.

Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2021
DOI
10.1017/S0963180120000833
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Citation Information
Joel Michael Reynolds, Laura Guidry-Grimes and Katie Savin. "Against Personal Ventilator Reallocation" Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics Vol. 30 Iss. 2 (2021) p. 272 - 284 ISSN: 1469-2147
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/katharine-savin/4/