학술논문
When Is Age Choosing Ageist Discrimination?
Document Type
Article
Source
Subject
*SURVIVAL
*AGEISM
*HEALTH services accessibility
*MEDICAL triage
*DISCRIMINATION (Sociology)
*AGE distribution
*DECISION making in clinical medicine
*COVID-19 pandemic
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Language
ISSN
0093-0334
Abstract
When the Covid‐19 pandemic reached the United States in spring 2020, many states and hospitals announced crisis standards of care plans that used age as a categorical exclusion criterion. Such age choosing was quickly flagged as discriminatory, and so some states and hospitals shifted to embedding age as a tiebreaker deeper in their plans. Different rationales were given for using age as a tiebreaker: that younger patients were more likely to survive than older patients, that saving younger patients would save more life years, and that younger patients deserved a chance to live through life's stages. We provide a critical analysis of these three rationales, noting the differences between them, and then questioning the ethical and legal justifications for such age choosing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]