Bioética en tiempos de pandemia COVID-19

The current CoVID-19 pandemic has changed the world The role of bioethics is to help us prioritize our values and put them ahead of our personal interests We have examples of pandemics throughout history, but these happened in completely different living conditions, and decisions were made based on different scenarios Today, we are facing a society with diverse and especial needs, and advanced technologies that allow us to "save lives" At the same time, our health systems need to make crucial decisions such as who should get the last bed?, the last ventilator?, how to properly manage sensitive populations (e g , the elderly, patients with chronic or unknown conditions) This is further exacerbated if we consider the limited hospital capacity and lack of basic sanitary resources that countries face In absence of a definitive treatment and vaccine for this virus, studies that are not properly structured, from an ethics point of view, are being conducted, hence leading to a problematic situation In this work, we aim to provide a broad overview of the bioethics situation we are facing around the world It is important to note that at this time there are not sufficient articles of scientific validity available Resources currently available mostly show experts'opinions on the problem This is understandable given that the time we have to experiment and find a vaccine for CoVID-19 is rather limited This pandemic has brought us to a completely new, global situation, and most of us do not have any prior experience with this type of scenarios In the midst of all, we hope that this global crisis can lead us to a change in society, where we pursue equity and we become more empathetic human beings This article summarizes the confrontation of the principles of bioethics with the current pandemic situation La pandemia de CoVID-19 ha cambiado al mundo La bioetica nos ayuda a ordenar y a colocar nuestros valores por sobre nuestros intereses La historia nos relata pandemias, pero las condiciones de vida fueron completamente diferentes y las decisiones fueron tomadas en escenarios distintos Actualmente nos vemos enfrentados a una sociedad con diversas necesidades especiales, una tecnologia avanzada que permite "salvar vidas", esto sumado a la imperiosa necesidad de tomar decisiones por parte de los sistemas de salud que estan sobrepasados por la situacion epidemiologica actual Asi tener que ser parte de la decision sobre a quien otorgar "la ultima cama o "el ultimo ventilador mecanico", ademas del adecuado manejo de ancianos, pacientes con enfermedades cronicas o sin un pronostico conocido, se ha vuelto una realidad Esto se ve vinculado a las deficiencias que afrontan los paises en cuanto a la capacidad hospitalaria y de insumos sanitarios basicos La situacion de no tener un tratamiento, una vacuna y la realizacion de estudios que eticamente no estan bien estructurados, llevan a un dilema dificil de resolver En este articulo se resume el enfrentamiento de los principios de la bioetica con la situacion de la pandemia actual Por eso es que decidimos hacer una revision de lo que sucede a nivel mundial desde el punto de vista bioetico, a pesar de que la bibliografia es de escaso contenido cientifico y se encuentra mayoritariamente como opinion de expertos Esta pandemia es una condicion nueva, no tenemos experiencias, solo esperamos que sirva para una reflexion que lleve a una sociedad mas justa y a ser personas mas empaticas