Der Rigor der Gerechtigkeit

Abstract

Triage in medicine reveals problems of justice, since in the choice between two harms, ethical reflection encourages not only to avoid the greater harm but also to tolerate a lesser harm. It is precisely this that renders the justice of triage in question here so tragic, belying the positive semantics of justice. This is exactly what happens in medical triage, which, although it may be deemed fair, leaves one harm uneliminated, even if it is the lesser of the two. Decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic must therefore take measures in order to avoid the need for triage. In this discussion, Protestant criticisms of justice undermine resolute attestations of justice by pointing them towards their mediocre moral structures. As shown problems can be avoided that arise when judgments of justice are evaluated in established ethical deliberation without consideration of their unsavory effects and by overestimating iustitia hominis. © 2021 Guetersloher Verlagshaus. All rights reserved.