[Ethical tribulations of COVID-19: the sinister ominous, existential responsibility and Medice, Cura Te Ipsum]

Rev Med Chil. 2020 Nov;148(11):1668-1673. doi: 10.4067/S0034-98872020001101668.
[Article in Spanish]

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the vulnerability of the human being in their existential and medical fields. A feeling of uncertainty of an overwhelming and ominous nature indicates that dying is inherent for the human condition, a feeling that is daily hidden behind the mask of a casual, unexpected, random event. The possibility of dying from the viral disease revealed that the essence of man as being-in-the-world is ethical or self-assumption and is expressed through an original rather than a moral conscience, which calls for authenticity, to listen to its nihility as being-referred-to-death. The medical ethical principles based on rights and duties need to be perfected by the ethics of virtues in accordance with the current challenges, requiring a transformation of the moral self of the doctor. A moral failure of duty is inevitable for medicine, it will never reach its final realization.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Ethics, Medical
  • Humans
  • Moral Obligations
  • Morals
  • Pandemics*
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Virtues