How Doctors in Canada Will Decide Who Lives and Who Dies if Pandemic Worsens

How Doctors in Canada Will Decide Who Lives and Who Dies if Pandemic Worsens
Employees of Hamilton Medical AG test ventilators at a plant in Domat/Ems, Switzerland, on March 18, 2020. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
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When there’s only one ventilator but two patients who need it, how should a doctor decide who gets the chance to survive?

Medical ethicists across the country are working to help frontline workers answer weighty questions should the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelm hospitals the way it has in northern Italy and New York City.