Abstract
This commentary further explores some of the ethical issues raised by Prof. Peter Singer in his Lanson Lecture “Pandemic Ethics: Five Lessons”. In the first part, I distinguish a prioritarian approach to the allocation of scarce medical resources, from the utilitarian one advocated by Singer. I suggest that the prioritarian view better matches common intuitions about fair distribution, even though it likely needs to be balanced with other principles if it is to have plausibility in contexts like vaccine allocation. In the second part of the commentary, I take a global perspective (as Singer himself does regarding the ethics of lockdowns), and highlight the controversial implications of adopting a fully cosmopolitan ethical outlook when deciding how to distribute Covid-19 vaccines. I also raise justice-related concerns about Singer’s proposal to use well-being as a single metric for evaluating public health policies.
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Notes
- 1.
Derek Parfit, “Equality and Priority”, Ratio 10, 3 (1997): 202–221.
- 2.
For example, Govind Persad and Steven Joffe, “Allocating Scarce Life-Saving Resources: the Proper Role of Age”, J Med Ethics (2021), doi:10.1136/medethics-2020-106792; David Archard and Arthur Caplan, “Is It Wrong to Prioritize Younger Patients with Covid-19?”, BMJ (2020): 369.
- 3.
Kathleen Dooling, “Phased Allocation of Covid-19 Vaccines”, ACIP Meeting, November 23, 2020, URL = https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2020-11/COVID-04-Dooling.pdf.
- 4.
Kathleen Dooling, “Phased Allocation of Covid-19 Vaccines”.
- 5.
Harald Schmidt, “Vaccine Rationing and the Urgency of Social Justice in the Covid-19 Response”, Hastings Center Report 50 (2020): 46–49.
- 6.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press (2020). https://doi.org/10.17226/25917.
- 7.
If the NASEM’s proposal were actually the one saving the most lives, Prof. Singer would presumably endorse it, and there would again be no disagreement between prioritarians and utilitarians at the policy level.
- 8.
UN News, “Vaccine Equity the ‘Challenge of our Time’, WHO Chief Declares, as Governments Call for Solidarity, Sharing”, 16 April 2021. URL = https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/04/1089972.
- 9.
U.A. Mitchell, J.A. Ailshire, “Race Differences in Life Satisfaction: Do Higher Levels of Education Help or Hurt?”, The Gerontologist 55, 2 (2015): 263.
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Erler, A. (2024). Commentary on “Pandemic Ethics: Five Lessons”. In: Li, HL. (eds) Lanson Lectures in Bioethics (2016-2022). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42052-8_14
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