Medical Ethics in the Time of COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2023) | Viewed by 252
Special Issue Editors
Interests: bioethics education; research ethics; brain drug delivery pharmacokinetics; sex-divergent therapeutic outcomes
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a new challenge for human beings, not only due to its virulence and the subsequent wide spread of the disease and mortality, but also due to its social reach. Technological advances, including the development of vaccines, have been essential to overcoming the high mortality and reduce it, and have also been used to address deficiencies and critical situations at a global scale. While procedural and triage protocols were implemented by Healthcare Agencies, new ethical challenges are being faced by healthcare professionals, who have to confront not only an acute lack or resources to provide appropriate care to patients, but also their own lack of knowledge about the disease, treatment and decision making.
In this Special Issue, we aim to address the specific difficulties that healthcare professionals, administrators, scientists and decision makers face, as well as identify the gaps that made the ethical assessment of the decision difficult: How should each resource be allocated? Which decision had an impact on professionals? Which drug seemed to be more beneficial? Which evidence-based choice of treatment was preferred? Which public policy worked out well? Were the positive or negative outcomes conditioned by additional factors? Did solidarity prevail? Additionally, ultimately, was I fully prepared to make life-or-death decisions? Which resources were lacking?
Understanding the individual and societal limitations may provide valuable information to identify policies, ethical evaluation systems, and information resources that may guide better medical care and ethics, not only during emergency pandemic contexts, but also in everyday practice.
We look forward to your contributions, presenting the challenges and the opportunities.
Prof. Dr. Ignacio Segarra
Dr. Ignacio Macpherson
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- bioethics continuing education
- utilitarian ethics
- personalist ethics
- resources allocation
- vulnerable populations
- health policy
- global health
- COVID-19
- decision making
- health information exchange
- triage
- bioethics education
- personalist ethics
- ethics committee
- precautionary principle
- continuing education
- research
- genetics
- critical care
- delivery of health care
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
