Should people suffering from Ebola be given treatments that have been rushed through the FDA approval process? The patients and their families, primarily in West Africa, cannot give informed consent due to cultural and language barriers and the general desperation that goes with a life-threatening illness.
Is the situation any more clear in developed countries, where language and cultural barriers are not a problem?
Drs. Scott Halpern and Ezekiel Emanuel from the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania offer five points of guidance on the use of life-sustaining therapies for patients with Ebola in developed countries.
Writing in Annals of Internal Medicine, they note that as hospital administrators in the developed world prepare to care for Ebola patients, they must consider several unfamiliar and challenging ethical and operational questions.
The recommendations are intended to help institutions develop policies that balance risks, benefits, and duties to patients with Ebola and volunteer clinicians.