A Matter of Interpretation? Critical Considerations on SIAARTI’s Recommendations, Age Discrimination and Healthcare Emergency

During the pandemic emergency, the adoption by the Italian Society of Anaesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (Società italiana di anestesia, analgesia, rianimazione e terapia intensiva, hereinafter “SIAARTI”), of the document Clinical Ethics Recommendations for the Allocation of Intensive Care Treatments in exceptional, resource-limited circumstances (hereinafter, Recommendations) and the adoption of preventive and containment strategies for the virus that transformed many institutions in segregation and ‘deadly’ places, have been mainly considered revealing of a structural discrimination against elderly persons (ageism). The following remarks try to integrate the debate on the Recommendations, purporting to understand if and insofar such an inference is justified.