Equitable resource allocation in the intensive care unit: a descriptive ethical case

• Published in: Critical care and resuscitation 2006-06, Vol.8 (2), p.123-128
• Main Authors: Lewis, Elchanan, van Heerden, P Vernon, Hawker, Felicity H, Kallenbach, Jeremy M, Raper, Raymond F, Clinton, Colin W, McEwen, Peter M, Rubinow, Alan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anti-Retroviral Agents - economics; Anti-Retroviral Agents - therapeutic use; Antitubercular Agents - economics; Antitubercular Agents - therapeutic use; Australia; Complications; Contact Tracing; Critical Care - ethics; Disease Notification; HIV infections; HIV Infections - complications; HIV Infections - drug therapy; Humans; Intensive Care Units; Intubation, Intratracheal; Male; Medical ethics; Patient Discharge; Refugees; Refusal to Treat; Resource Allocation - ethics; Respiration, Artificial; Respiratory Insufficiency - complications; Respiratory Insufficiency - microbiology; Respiratory Insufficiency - therapy; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary - complications; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary - diagnosis; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary - drug therapy; Withholding Treatment
• ISSN: 1441-2772
• DOI: 10.1016/S1441-2772(23)01409-6

A patient with respiratory failure due to undiagnosed tuberculosis in the presence of HIV infection presents to the ICU in a foreign country. This raises many ethical questions, quite apart from the medical management issues raised by the patient's serious condition. Six of these ethical questions have been presented to leading physicians and an ethicist, from a range of national, cultural and religious backgrounds, for their comment. (author abstract)