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Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

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California Health Care Workers Push for Better Conditions

Charles Binkley, MD, director of bioethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, quoted on CGTN.

Charles Binkley, a bio-ethicist at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, says an already tense relationship between hospitals and unions has further deteriorated during the pandemic.

"When the administration says you have to this, you have to work these extra hours, you don't get a break, and the healthcare professional is ethically bound to not abandon the patient, you're stuck in this uncomfortable place which we call 'moral distress.'

"One very ethically responsible way to allocate PPE would be to do the most good for the greatest number, so that would be to protect the greatest number who are at the highest risk. One of the other concerns when you go back in time is, why didn't hospitals have an adequate supply of these things? 

Charles Binkley, MD, director of Bioethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, quoted on CGTN.

Ethics
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Jeff Chiu/AP Photo