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

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.