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| Article - Abstract. To view full article click on the article title. | |
CBHD: Age-Based Rationing of Health Care - John F. Kilner Thousands of people die annually - even in a developed country like the United States - for lack of access to organ transplants. Vastly greater numbers die worldwide for lack of access to immunizations, or antibiotics, or prenatal care. The inescapable question echoes around the world: When there is not enough for everyone, who gets it and who doesn't? Who lives and who dies? Sometimes the problem is that health care becomes very expensive, or the resources allocated to it become limited by other priorities - perhaps misplaced ones. So it may be a question of tight money. But it also may be a question of absolutely scarce resources, like organs for transplant. Valiant efforts have been made to save the lives of those who cannot get transplants. The artificial kidney - hemodialysis - was developed to save the lives of those who could not have kidney transplants. But then that created a new allocation problem: Who would get the available dialysis machines? There was quite an exposé in Life magazine a few decades ago about how hospitals were deciding who would live and who would be left to die. In many cases, according to this article, people who were socially attractive were the winners. The matter went to the floor of the U.S. Congress. Congress, understandably, was not eager to tackle the issue of how to decide who should live and who should die. Full Article: http://www.cbhd.org/resources/healthcare/kilner_2001-10-12.htm |
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2006 Ethics-Governance.com |
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