Abstract
This chapter puts forward a novel healthcare application of the Trolley Problem by applying it to our most recent global health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. The following hypothesis is introduced, analyzed and ultimately rejected: that the Trolley Problem can be used to distinguish between the supposed ethical permissibility of lifting lockdowns and the supposed ethical impermissibility of pursuing herd immunity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the chapter is twofold: both to test whether and how far we can progress within pandemic ethics by using the Trolley Problem and also to test whether the particular case of the COVID-19 pandemic can make a methodological contribution to trolley debates in philosophy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Trolley Problem |
| Editors | Hallvard Lillehammer |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Place of Publication | Cambridge |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Publication date | 2023 |
| Edition | 1 |
| Pages | 231-243 |
| Chapter | 12 |
| ISBN (Print) | 10.1017/9781009255615 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2023 |