Interview: COVID-19 PANDEMIC: HOW BIOETHICS CAN HELP FACE HEARTBREAKING CHOICES

A dialogue between Maria Aluaș and Professor Rouven PORZ, Universitätsspital BernInselhospital Bern, Switzerland and Visiting Professor at the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Abstract

The exceptional situation experienced in the last months with the COVID-19 pandemic raised difficult ethical questions in medical, political and social decision-making. A Clinical Ethics Unit is a facility in a hospital that is set up with the purpose to help medical professionals when they are facing difficult ethical decisions, for example in relation to their patients’ diagnosis or therapy or in relation to deal with the relatives of patients. In this interview we will interrogate Professor Rouven PORZ, from the University Hospital Bern “Inselspital” in Bern, Switzerland. He is the head of a Clinical Ethics Unit and president of the European Association of Centers of Medical Ethics (EACME). We will talk with him about the role and the meaning of clinical ethics support during the Covid-19 pandemic.