COVID Ethics Series

In Healthcare as a Human Right, a panel of experts discusses ethical issues associated with universal healthcare and whether healthcare is, in fact, a human right and what follows from this claim.

In Conscience, Vaccines, and the Obligations of Community, a panel of experts discusses respect for individual conscience and decision making and how to balance this with the health needs of communities. Considerations of conscientious objection, vaccine hesitancy, and the role of philosophical and religious concerns in requesting exemptions are to be discussed.

As COVID-19 continues to affect communities across the globe, we tun to the stories and depictions – narrative and graphic – behind COVID with the hope of gaining a better understanding of its impact and how we may move forward ethically. Prof. Bryan Pilkington speaks with a multi-disciplinary panel of experts about narrative and graphic medicine in the time of COVID.

Featuring Emma Goldberg, author of "Life on the Line: Young Doctors Come of Age in a Pandemic" and writer for The New York Times; Nick Cozzarelli, medical student at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine; and Alex Tannenbaum, medical student at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

In Expertise in the Time of COVID: Who has it? Who should have it?, a panel of experts discusses the roles that authority, information literacy, and reasoning in situations of uncertainty have in responding ethically to a pandemic. In this episode, Bryan Pilkington speaks with a multi-disciplinary panel about the importance of expertise and how it has played out in the time of COVID. Panelists, including Chelsea Barrett (Seton Hall Libraries), Jennifer Oliva (Seton Hall University Law School), Kayhan Parsi (Loyola University), and Peter Wicks (Elm Institute), will discuss the role of expertise from their disciplines.

In this session, Prof. Bryan Pilkington speaks with a multi-disciplinary panel of experts about what we still need to learn about resource allocation. As we face spikes and a potential second wave of COVID-19, experts from law, medicine, bioethics, and philosophy discuss ethical issues associated with resource allocation and what we can do moving forward.

COVID-19 impacts not only the health of members of our communities and calls out for political and public policy responses, but it also highlights unjust structural features in healthcare and inequalities embedded within the very processes intended to inform politics and public policy. In this session, Prof. Bryan Pilkington speaks with a multi-disciplinary panel of experts about the relationship between heath, healthcare, and politics. Panelists, including Prof. Michael Gusmano (Hastings Center, Rutgers), Prof. Ramona Guthrie (Seton Hall), Prof. Meryl Picard (Seton Hall), and Dr. Florian Thomas (Hackensack Meridian Health), discuss issues of access, engagement, and the relationship between health and voting.

COVID-19 has impacted societies in various ways and laid bare failures of institutions in many sectors to plan for challenging eventualities. In this session, Prof. Bryan Pilkington speaks with a multi-disciplinary panel of experts about how the ethical norm – the duty to plan – which is well entrenched in the field of bioethics, is taken up in other sectors.

COVID-19 has impacted children in various ways and divergent accounts of its impact have led to confusion, as well as differing policy recommendations and practices. In “Children: Educating Safely in the Time of COVID,” Prof. Bryan Pilkington speaks with a multi-disciplinary panel of experts about the impact that COVID can have on children, their safety, and their education.

As COVID-19 continues to affect communities across the globe, plans and precautions for returning to semblances of normalcy vary. In “Community Ethics During COVID: Student Voices,” Prof. Bryan Pilkington speaks with a multi-disciplinary panel of experts about what we owe to others in our community during this time.

As COVID-19 continues to affect communities across the globe, plans and precautions for returning to semblances of normalcy vary. In “Unmasking Ethical Foundations in the Time of COVID: What We Owe to Each Other,” Prof. Bryan Pilkington speaks with a multi-disciplinary panel of experts about the pledges, oaths, and codes of ethics that underlie individual, professional, and community responses to the pandemic.

A multi-disciplinary panel of experts speaks about racism during the pandemic, what has led to the structural injustice which places America in not one but two public health crises, and what healthcare practitioners and others can do about it.

COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of expertise and discovery for our health and well-being. However, the urgency of our needs as a community can sometimes encourage hasty work and the dissemination of inaccurate information. In False Hope Amid the Exuberance of Discovery: Research Ethics in the Time of COVID, researchers and research ethicists join Prof. Bryan Pilkington for a conversation about the challenges of performing research carefully and fully while lives are hanging in the balance.

Discrimination and equity during the time of COVID-19 featuring a distinguished panel of experts.

Dr. Bryan Pilkington speaks with a multi-disciplinary panel of experts from across the country who are working to ensure that the vulnerable are protected.

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected members of marginalized communities and members of vulnerable populations. It has also changed how many healthcare practices are offered. In “Pregnancy and Covid-19: Keeping Mothers and Babies Well,” Prof. Bryan Pilkington speaks with experts in maternal-fetal care about how best to keep mothers, babies, and those who care for them safe and well. This multi-disciplinary conversation will bring together experts from medicine, nursing, and occupational therapy from across the country with those at Seton Hall University.

Aiding in the fight against COVID19 can be challenging, especially for those without the necessary healthcare training or proper placement within current health-providing institutions. This is because the most impactful practice for many of us “doing” what is often seen as doing nothing: staying away from others. In our next COVID Ethics Session, Prof. Bryan Pilkington speaks with students from the HMSOM, CON, and SHMS at Seton Hall University about the novel ways they are aiding in the fight against COVID19 – from organizing fundraisers, to writing research briefs, to assisting in actual practice – these students are making an impact.

The Olympics have been canceled, athletic seasons have been postponed, and activities in our nation’s parks and public spaces have been restricted. In addition to the direct challenges that COVID-19 raises for healthcare practitioners, it has led to significant changes in the daily physical practices of many. Please join Prof. Bryan Pilkington and a panel of experts to discuss ethical considerations associated with the cancellation, postponement, and severe limiting of athletic activities and recreation opportunities.

Significant financial, social, and – most importantly – human resources are being devoted to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare practitioners are being “redeployed” from their areas of specialty to other areas of need. Physicians, nurses, and other health professionals are being called from their hometowns to serve those most impacted. These efforts are occurring amid concerns about the long-term effects of COVID-19, including broader socio-economic stress, the viability of future healthcare resources, and conflicting accounts of how to best address and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.