What is it about?
The moral dilemma of healthcare allocation arises whenever we allocate limited resources, and rationing is a necessary option for distributing available resources, which entails denying service to someone for the benefit of others. In our study, we claim that since allocation and rationing of healthcare resources is a complex task and since disease and health are relational and contextual, it is difficult to agree on a principle or principles of allocation and rationing of healthcare applicable across different contexts.
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Why is it important?
In our study, we argue that the moral challenges of healthcare rationing ought not to be addressed through the appeal to principles but rather through deliberation that embraces a more pragmatic and democratic approach to negotiating health resource distribution. However, this does not mean that moral principles, values and rules of allocation are insignificant in healthcare allocation; instead they can be used as presumptive guidelines or hypothesis during ethical deliberation or investigation.
Perspectives
In this article, we observed the matter healthcare and healthcare allocation by going beyond the traditional approaches to healthcare ethics, embracing the method of pragmatist ethics. We believe that this approach helps reconciling the existing debates on healthcare justice and healthcare ethics.
Belayneh Taye
Bahir Dar University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Healthcare, Healthcare Resource Allocation, and Rationing: Pragmatist Reflections, Contemporary Pragmatism, August 2022, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/18758185-bja10046.
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