RETHINKING THE PATIENT AUTONOMY PRINCIPLE IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE PANDEMIC

Abstract

The article deals with the problematic issues of biomedical ethics, newly actualized by the pandemic emergency. The paper analyzes the modern transformation of the relationship between the concepts of “common good” and “patient autonomy” through the prism of the COVID-19 situation. There is determined the philosophical basis of the principle of patient autonomy, the phenomenon of reassessment of its significance, transformation and possible limitation in conditions of quarantine are investigated and the connection between this principle and the principle of justice is noted. The processes of rethinking the principle of patient autonomy identified in the work lead to the formation a new model of relationships in biomedical ethics - the so-called “quarantine ethics”. In the context of this model formation a new “open” biomedical ethics’s question associated with the legal and ethical justification for limiting the principle of patient autonomy is being formed. The main positions of bioethics, formed in relation to this issue, are presented. The author comes to the conclusion that in the situation of new bioethical challenges, the principle of patient autonomy has undergone significant changes and, possibly, needs further correction.