News and blogs

The UK Government’s communication with the public has been admirably clear and simple: stay home. But it has been one-dimensional and one directional, whilst the challenges presented by COVID-19 are multiple, and they are far from simple.

Debate about how to exit from lockdown is increasing. What evidence is there that the ethical dimension of that process has been considered? So far there is little or no such evidence.

It’s amazing how much (and how many people) we trust in and how reliant we are on trust. Imagine a world in which you never trusted your doctor to try to do her best for you. In an emergency such as the present one when things are so uncertain trust matters even more. But you cannot just command trust (‘Trust me I am an expert/Minister/whatever’) and when trust has been built up over time it is very easy for it to be destroyed in an instant.

There is urgency to the situation that we all face. But urgency does not absolve those responsible for decision-making of the moral duty to involve those who are affected; to engage with the communities that they represent and seek to protect; and to be transparent about the basis on which decisions are being considered and are being made.

Join us for our second webinar, jointly organised with the Ada Lovelace Institute

The recording of our recent webinar – Ethics in the research response to COVID-19 – is now available online.

The UK Government’s public information campaign starkly tells us what we are to do – stay at home – and why – to save lives, and to protect the NHS. It’s fairly clear what it is to save a life, although it is not easy to measure how many lives will have been saved. But what is it to protect the NHS?

Two weeks ago, I came down with a respiratory infection that produced a high fever and a persistent, dry cough. Following the current official guidance, I went into isolation and my family entered quarantine…

Join us and experts from the UK, US and Brazil for a discussion on how research can be undertaken ethically during the emergency response to COVID-19.

As part of our responsive activities to COVID-19, we have launched a repository of resources on ethical aspects of the pandemic.

At some point in this terrible pandemic doctors will have to make some unbelievably difficult life and death decisions. It is the point at which the demand for the intensive life saving resources outstrips their supply. At that point doctors will have to decide who receives care and who does not. No one should have to make such decisions, and yet they will have to be made.