BioethicsCPH

We are a diverse group of philosophers doing research and teaching in and around bioethics, medical ethics, and ethics and philosophy of technology at the Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen.

Current projects look for example at reproductive technologies and family ties, control and delegation in autonomous systems, and medical artificial intelligence. We teach ethics within most degree programs at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences here in Copenhagen, including medicine, public health, and health informatics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Partners

 

 

Pandemic Ethics

This project aims at providing an ethical contribution to identifying prioritization criteria for situations of global pandemics, where policymakers face the dilemma that the fulfillment of responsibilities to different groups of people clash, and prioritization is necessary. Another dilemma arises when partly incommensurable values such as respect for health and for democratic freedoms must be weighed against each other because respect for one will put the other in jeopardy.

Pandemic Ethics has received funding from Helsefonden

Background

Indirect prioritizations that do not imply carefully weighing all morally relevant factors are ethically problematic, whether they concern micro-prioritization in the health sector or macro-prioritization at the national or perhaps supranational level. We would argue that this type of indirect prioritization is exactly what is at play, when combatting Covid-19 is prioritized over every other societal interest.

In situations such emergency situations during pandemics, the fulfillment of responsibilities towards different groups of citizens will clash, and trade-offs between them are inevitable. Prioritizations must be made, and we must not forget that this is what politicians do every day; be it by carefully weighing different interests against each other; or be it unintentionally, when solving one problem leads to unintended consequences on others. Prioritizations are made continuously; at the societal level between funds allocated to the health sector versus other government sectors (macro-prioritization). And within the health sector funds are prioritized between medical specialties (micro-prioritization). Sometimes doctors have to prioritize between different patients in cases of overcrowding in hospital wards.

A known problem is that when attempts are made to define overall principles and openly apply these to identifiable human beings, prioritization becomes highly contentious. When Medicinrådet recommends not implementing a certain treatment in the health sector, patient’s groups engage the media and tangible examples of human lives put at risk can make effectuating the recommendation untenable.

The problem is that giving in to the patients who are most visible does not, of course, make the need for prioritization go away. It merely takes it from the visible to the less discernible domains. It perhaps leads to funds being prioritized to patients at risk of immediate death at the cost of patients, e.g. psychiatric patients, who will die from indirect causes relating to a lack of treatment due to downgrading of their medical field. This kind of invisible prioritization is unethical in the sense that it tends to benefit those who are exposed and outspoken at the expense of others with pressing needs who are less visible and whose death might occur at a later point in time.

This project aims at providing an ethical contribution to identifying prioritization criteria for situations of global pandemics, where policymakers face the dilemma that the fulfillment of responsibilities to different groups of people clash and prioritization is necessary.

Publications 

Lykkeskov, A. 2022. Pandemic ethics – the case of COVID-19. In: Ezio Di Nucci, Ji-Young Lee, Isaac Wagner (eds), The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Bioethics

Lykkeskov, A and E. Di Nucci. 2022. COVID-19 and intergenerational justice: the case of Denmark. In: G. Schweiger (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives on the Social Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Springer.

Di Nucci, E and A. Lykkeskov. Democracy, Indifference and COVID-19. In: G. Schweiger (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives on the Social Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Springer.

Lykkeskov, A. 2021 Ben Bramble, Pandemic Ethics - 8 Big Questions of COVID-19, Ethic Theory Moral Prac 24, 423–425. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-020-10131-x

Contact

Principal investigator

Ezio Di Nucci

Emailezio@sund.ku.dk
Phone: +45 35 33 43 14

Principal investigator

Anne Lykkeskov

Emailnls778@sund.ku.dk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Principal Investigator (PI)

Ezio Di Nucci
Professor with special responsibilities

Phone: +45 35 33 43 14
E-mailezio@sund.ku.dk

Funded by the Velux Foundation 2019-2023

Members

Name Title Phone E-mail
Bidoli, Andrea Postdoc +4535326492 E-mail
Friis, Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen Associate Professor +4535327935 E-mail
Guldmann, Finn Part-time Lecturer   E-mail
Jensen, Anja Marie Bornø Associate Professor +4535337317 E-mail
Knox, Jeanette Bresson Ladegaard Senior Researcher +4535337334 E-mail
Lee, Ji Yong Assistant Professor +4535334245 E-mail
Sørensen, Peter Laurs Part-time Lecturer   E-mail
Wagner, Isaac Anderson Teaching Associate Professor +4535334788 E-mail

External members

Lykkeskov, Anne
Mertens, Mayli

Former members

Name
Andersen, Hanne
Bülow, Morten
Carusi, Annamaria 
Christensen, Martin Ejsing 
Green, Sara
Harksen, Henrik
Holm, Søren
Norup, Michael Slott
Schiøler, Elise Utke
Silber, Anders
Wass, Anne
Wulff, Henrik R.