Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic and the Swedish strategy when dealing with the crisis, have shown that a status quo bias can be highly damaging for bioethical decision-making. The pandemic presented a situation of high levels of uncertainties, where incomparable values such as health and freedom, were being put against each other. Because of this, mathematically oriented utility calculations or maximin principles such as the Precautionary Principle, recommended by the Swedish Corona-Commission, were not applicable. This I conclude since the Precautionary Principle cannot be applied when the outcomes of different alternatives are not comparable in value-terms. To answer the question of what signifies good bioethical decisionmaking during a crisis, risk and uncertainties I therefore present a five-step Crisis Checklist intended to give an overview of what a bioethical decision should entail.