The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has posed as a strong challenge in the global scenario. Along with the pandemic, it has given rise to several other challenges that deserve to be discussed. One of the key challenges is the maintenance of Bioethics and basic human rights related to it. Bioethics, an integral part of medical disciplines and human rights related to it are usually assimilated into daily medical practices. Traditional sources of bioethics such as the ‘Hippocratic corpus’ or “The four principles of Beauchamp and Childress” can provide guidance during normal times. Implementation of bioethics, being time-consuming, is quite challenging in times of the pandemic. So, in times of an emergency and crisis like COVID-19, due to limited time and resources, the existence of these ethical endeavours has been challenged.

Bioethics and Human Rights Laws: Brief History and their Interrelation

Ethical issues and questions in medical field have given rise to two relatively new academic fields – ‘Bioethics’ and ‘Human Rights’. Bioethics first developed as a different academic discipline during the 1970s. The tremendous progression of medical field has stimulated further importance to the ethical issues. Based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, the UN also published Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights in 2005 as guidelines for bioethics internationally. Before that, the Oviedo Convention, 1997 which is also known as the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine, was the only binding legal instrument in the field of bioethics and human rights internationally, ratified in 29 countries.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights of 2005 by the UN addresses the “ethical issues related to medicine, life sciences and associated technologies as applied to human beings”. It also considers the socio-legal and environmental perspectives while addressing the Bioethics and the related human rights.

Bioethics and Human Rights Laws as a framework worldwide during COVID-19

On March 11, 2020 WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. Since then, the pandemic has posed several serious challenges and ethical issues globally in terms of allocation of resources, setting of priorities, social distancing, the rights and obligations of frontline health workers and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel. Further complexities arose during the conduction of clinical trial of vaccines and the vaccination programmes because of the countries with diverse socio-economic and different cultural backgrounds as well as health systems. Diverse health system in terms of infrastructure and availability is one of the greatest challenges during clinical trial of vaccine and vaccination. The only unification across all the diversities and differences became possible only because of the common goal – ‘Saving lives.’

But that itself gave rise to several ethical questions. Some of the prominent key challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic are the allocation and prioritisation of critical healthcare resources and the rights and safety of frontline health workers.

Both the UN and WHO has set up several guidelines regarding human rights and the bioethical issues concerning COVID-19. In February, 2020 WHO formed an international Working Group on Ethics and COVID-19 to monitor and advise on the ethical aspects and values in Covid-19 research as well as “resource allocation and priority setting in COVID-19 care” and The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator in April, 2020 to ensure the “development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests.”

The UN in April, 2020 in the article COVID-19 and Human Rights: We are all in this together prioritised the basic human rights during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic: “human rights are needed to navigate this crisis.”

The UN also highlighted three basic human rights amidst the battling of COVID-19 which includes “Right to life and health” and “freedom of movement” which is quite challenging during the lockdowns and restrictions.

WHO addressed the shortages of testing kits, PPEs etc and appealed for international co-operation. WHO also urged the countries to implement lockdowns, quarantine and other restrictive measures in accordance with Article 3 of the International Health Regulations (2005).

All the approaches in terms of theories and policies was not totally successful during implementation because the pandemic demanded a more realistic and practical approach. COVID-19 gave rise to serious practical problems regarding maintenance of basic human rights internationally mostly due to scarcity of resources as well as the inequities in the distribution of resources.

The  International Bioethics Committee (IBC) and the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) termed the vaccination programme as the “global public good” in 2021. But the COVID-19 vaccination programme has also set up newer ethical challenges regarding of the priority as well as equitable distribution of vaccines. On 13th April 2021, WHO in their vaccination policy of “COVID-19 and mandatory vaccination: Ethical considerations and caveats” stresses the factors of ethical issues of vaccination which includes necessity and proportionality, vaccine safety, efficacy, effectiveness and supply as well as ethical processes of decision-making.

Owing to all the complications, ensuring of basic “right to health” became the most difficult and often impossible across the world.

Conclusion

The pandemic of COVID‐19 has presented the world with more complex questions on bioethics as well as human rights including the inequalities of the global circulation of benefits of research. It has also threatened the assurance of basic human rights across the world.

If seen from a bioethical perspective, the attempts of combatting COVID-19 along with the protection of human rights need more practical approaches and measures.

New strategies and action plans with a shift toward more practical approaches should be developed. The focus should be on combatting various challenges associated with the pandemic. Alongside the advancement of ethical policies and theories, more practical approaches which ensures the global benefit should be formed.