AMA provides ethics guidance in the COVID-19 pandemic

CHICAGO — The COVID-19 pandemic makes exceptional demands on physicians in the United States as the number of cases continues to climb and the critical capacity of health systems is tested. Physicians and health care organizations find themselves facing significant ethical challenges.

The guidance of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Code of Medical Ethics is as relevant in the context of a public health crisis as it is in more familiar circumstances of clinical practice. To help physicians address the challenges of COVID-19, the AMA has assembled a series of analyses that apply the Code to issues emerging in the pandemic.