N Engl J Med. 2012 May 2. [Epub ahead of print]
From an Ethics of Rationing to an Ethics of Waste Avoidance.
Source
From the Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.
Abstract
Bioethics has long approached cost containment under the heading of "allocation of scarce resources." Having thus named the nail, bioethics has whacked away at it with the theoretical hammer of distributive justice. But in the United States, ethicaldebate is now shifting from rationing to the avoidance of waste. This little-noticed shift has important policy implications. Whereas the "R word" is a proverbial third rail in politics, ethicists rush in where politicians fear to tread. The ethics of rationing begins with two considerations. First, rationing occurs simply because resources are finite and someone must decide who gets what. Second, rationing . . .
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