Ethical aspects of triage in mass casualty.
OBJECTIVE
There is a growing awareness that, not only in war, but also in relation to natural disasters, we may have to face situations of mass casualty. Little has been said about the philosophical aspects of the triage problem arising in anesthesiology in these circumstances, however. There are only a few articles where these problems are addressed in a fruitful manner. These articles are reviewed here.


RESULTS
Even though important triage problems have been identified in the recent literature, they have not been solved in the discussion. Furthermore, there is no unanimity about how they should be solved in principle or in practice.


CONCLUSIONS
The implications of the discussions reviewed here are mainly for policy making and only indirectly for the clinic. When the problems have been sorted out in the political process, however, one would hope that a result should surface in the form of clear guidelines for clinical application. One of the reviewed articles puts forward suggestions to this effect. This, however, could only be the beginning of an important discussion to come.
Tännsjö
Torbjörn
T
Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. torbjorn.tannsjo@philosophy.su.se
D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000941:ethics*; D004190:Disasters; D006801:Humans; D014218:Triage / Q000941:ethics*