Flu ethics articles available free

Articles and editorials published in the American Journal of Bioethics over the past few years on pandemics and how to handle them are now available for free to help health officials figure out what to do about swine flu.

Presumably, for in the general public, the articles will also provide something to measure the actions of health officials and politicians against.

Here's a list of available articles:

Ethics, Pandemics, and the Duty to Treat by Heidi Malm, Leslie P. Francis, Robert Hood, Thomas May, Saad B. Omer, Daniel Salmon 2008; 8(8):4

OPCs: Carrots and Sticks: Keeping Healthcare Workers on the Job in a Public Health Disaster by Tia Powell 2008; 8(8):20

Health Care Workers' Willingness to Work in a Pandemic by Dorothy E. Vawter, J. Eline Garrett, Karen G. Gervais, Angela W. Prehn 2008; 8(8):21

Suppose They Gave an Epidemic and Nobody Came? by Neil Schluger 2008; 8(8):23

Not in My Job Description by Joanne Godley 2008; 8(8):25

Specifying the Duty to Treat by Michael J. Selgelid, Yen-Chang Chen 2008; 8(8):26

Ethics and Epidemics by Daniel K. Sokol 2008; 8(8):28

A Duty to Treat During a Pandemic? The Time for Talk is Now by Tracey M. Bailey, Thomas J. Marrie, Rhonda J. Rosychuk, Olive Yonge 2008; 8(8):29

The Duty to Care in a Pandemic by Joint Centre for Bioethics Pandemic Ethics Working Group 2008; 8(8):31

Without Consent: Moral Imperatives, Special Abilities, and the Duty to Treat by Nadia Sawicki 2008; 8(8):33

Public Health and Duties to the Population during a Pandemic by Kenneth Kirkwood 2008; 8(8):35

Remembering the "Pan" in "Pandemic": Considering the Impact of Global Resource Disparity on a Duty to Treat by Alison Reiheld 2008; 8(8):37

Healthcare Professionals and the Reciprocal Duty to Treat During a Pandemic Disaster by Darren P. Mareiniss 2008; 8(8):39

Pandemic Influenza and the Duty to Treat: The Importance of Solidarity and Loyalty by Mitchell A. Klopfenstein 2008; 8(8):41 EDITORIAL: A 1918 Flu Memoir by Ricki Lewis 2008; 8(8):3

EDITORIAL: Don't Be Chicken: Bioethics and Avian Flu by Laurie Zoloth, Stephen Zoloth 2006; 6(1):5

EDITORIAL: Risk and Trust in Public Health: A Cautionary Tale by Matthew K. Wynia 2006; 6(2):3

EDITORIAL: Markets and Public Health: Pushing and Pulling Vaccines into Production by Matthew K. Wynia 2006; 6(3):3

EDITORIAL: Strange Bedfellows? Reflections on Bioethics' Role in Disaster Response Planning by Jessica W. Berg, Nicholas King 2006; 6(5):3

EDITORIAL: Ethics and Public Health Emergencies: Rationing Vaccines by Matthew K. Wynia 2006; 6(6):4

EDITORIAL: Ethics and Public Health Emergencies: Restrictions on Liberty by Matthew K. Wynia 2007; 7(2):1

EDITORIAL: What Vaccination Programs Mean for Research by Jeffrey P. Kahn 2007; 7(3):3

EDITORIAL: Ethics and Public Health Emergencies: Encouraging Responsibility by Matthew K. Wynia 2007; 7(4):1

EDITORIAL: Mandating Vaccination: What Counts as a "Mandate" in Public Health and When Should They Be Used? by Matthew K. Wynia 2007; 7(12):2

Such articles would normally cost about $37 (Canadian). No word on how long they will be available.

Comments

[Matthew Wynia]

Stuart,
I was told the articles will be available for free for at least 6 months.

[deana]

There are enough people employed in healthcare policymaking that the "what-to-do if and when" is well planned, way ahead of time. The true challenge is to get the public used to the draconian management decisions because they are shocking. Hospitals kill as well as treat. But who to kill and who to treat?

These articles are ways to usher in excuses not protections. As long as the medical profession can justify to the minimum extent that it warned or informed the public, a patient will be relegated in a hospital to be killed to to be treated. It is his choice that he came there to be judged. He is seen also, as fully informed of the limited menu: this fact being made known through the media and blogs like this one.

Hospitals kill the equivalent of a plane crash every day in Canada. And it is not because of human error. Even though the medical profession can save, it is more noteworthy that it kills. It is supposed to save, and has every device to save. It is not supposed to kill. Or if it is, it should ask Stuart Laidlaw to advertize it.

I find it weird and disturbing how public trust in medicine remains despite every proof that in large part its percepts are criminal. It wasn't always like this. The reason a doctor is trusted more than a politican is due the romancing of his self-sacrifice. The above articles are designed to promote the same old same old i.e. feeling more sorry for the healthcare worker than the patient. This is new-age.

So when the flu hits, which it will, the public will feel sorry for doctors and nurses and not expect much on the grounds of their human worth vis-a-vis the patient.

Why is it certain the flu will hit? Because just as a recession must be created and allowed to correct the periodic fallout of corruption and profiteering, so will pan-flu be waged to correct something.

My guess is that a pandemic will be used to usher in the fact that doctors are not here to heal, only to judge. Like Simon Cowell etc. How well can your illness zing?