Cuadernos de bioética : revista oficial de la Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica
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The article deals with the analysis of the criteria for the allocation of scarce health resources during the pandemic produced by the COVID 19 virus in Spain. It critically analyses the absence of a legal-constitutional perspective in the elaboration of such criteria and suggests the incorporation of the criterion of equity as a guarantee of the effective exercise of the constitutional right to health protection by vulnerable persons.
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With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of a possible lack of care for the elderly in nursing homes became evident. We summarize the experience of a multidisciplinary team with volunteer professionals from different specialties who carried out support for healthcare professionals in nursing homes. ⋯ Thanks to this support, the elderly population placed there, with suspected or diagnosed COVID-19, received adequate care from an interdisciplinary team, which led part of the pressure to be released from their professional workers, and many family members were aware that there was no neglect of the elderly. Commitment from various levels of care in a coordinated effort has prevented a vulnerable population from being left unattended during the pandemic.
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Review
[Hastening death by voluntary stopping of eating and drinking. A new mode of assisted suicide?]
In the last few years, the new catch phrase ″voluntary stopping of eating and drinking″ has made its appearance in the medical and bioethical literature. The practice, whose ″primary intention″ is to hasten the death of a person who does not want to continue living, has been proposed as an alternative to euthanasia and assisted suicide. ⋯ In this article we present a critical review of the recent literature and reach the conclusion that it is very difficult to consider this practice as anything other than a type of suicide. In consequence, healthcare workers should consider it alien to medical ethos and good clinical practice.