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      Utilitarianism and the Pandemic

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          Abstract

          There are no egalitarians in a pandemic. The scale of the challenge for health systems and public policy means that there is an ineluctable need to prioritise the needs of the many. It is impossible to treat all citizens equally, and a failure to carefully consider the consequences of actions could lead to massive preventable loss of life.

          In a pandemic there is a strong ethical need to consider how to do most good overall.

          Utilitarianism is an influential moral theory which states that the right action is the action which is expected to produce the greatest good. It offers clear operationalizable principles. In this paper we provide a summary of how utilitarianism could inform two challenging questions that have been important in the early phase of the pandemic:

          1. Triage: which patients should receive access to a ventilator if there is overwhelming demand outstripping supply?

          2. Lockdown: How should countries decide when to implement stringent social restrictions, balancing preventing deaths from COVID‐19 with causing deaths and reducing in wellbeing from other causes?

          Our aim is not to argue that utilitarianism is the only relevant ethical theory, or in favour of a purely utilitarian approach. However, clearly considering which options will do the most good overall will help societies identify and consider the necessary cost of other values. Societies may choose either to embrace or not to embrace the utilitarian course, but with a clear understanding of the values involved and the price they are willing to pay.

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          Author and article information

          Contributors
          julian.savulescu@philosophy.ox.ac.uk
          Journal
          Bioethics
          Bioethics
          10.1111/(ISSN)1467-8519
          BIOE
          Bioethics
          John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )
          0269-9702
          1467-8519
          20 May 2020
          : 10.1111/bioe.12771
          Affiliations
          [ 1 ] Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics University of Oxford
          [ 2 ] Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities University of Oxford
          [ 3 ] Visiting Professorial Fellow in Biomedical Ethics Murdoch Children's Research Institute
          [ 4 ] Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law University of Melbourne
          [ 5 ] Gothenberg University
          [ 6 ] John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford
          Author notes
          [*] [* ] Corresponding author

          Julian Savulescu, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Suite 8, Littlegate House, 16/17 St Ebbe's St, Oxford, OX1 1PT

          Email: julian.savulescu@ 123456philosophy.ox.ac.uk

          Author information
          https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1691-6403
          https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-8633
          Article
          BIOE12771
          10.1111/bioe.12771
          7276855
          32433782
          f65f0a0c-4f2e-492b-ba6c-a4efc4e5aa9d
          This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

          Open access.

          History
          Page count
          Figures: 0, Tables: 0, Pages: 33, Words: 305
          Categories
          Original Article
          Original Articles
          Custom metadata
          2.0
          accepted-manuscript
          Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_JATSPMC version:5.8.4 mode:remove_FC converted:08.06.2020

          Ethics
          covid‐19,pandemic ethics,resource allocation,utilitarianism
          Ethics
          covid‐19, pandemic ethics, resource allocation, utilitarianism

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