Justice, Beneficence, or Common Sense?: The President's Commission's Report on Access to Health Care

The President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research published in March of 1983 its Report, Securing Access to Health Care: The Ethical Implications of Differences in the Availability of Health Services. Concluding that there are “ethic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of medicine and philosophy 1983-11, Vol.8 (4), p.381-388
Main Author: Sass, H M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advisory Committees
Beneficence
Bioethics
distribution
equality
Ethics
Germany, West
Health Policy
Health Services Accessibility
Human Rights
Humans
Internationality
justice
Moral Obligations
Resource Allocation
right to health care
Social Justice
Social Values
United States
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Summary:The President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research published in March of 1983 its Report, Securing Access to Health Care: The Ethical Implications of Differences in the Availability of Health Services. Concluding that there are “ethical obligations” on behalf of society which are balanced by individual obligations, the Report provides an ethical framework for ensuring “ultimate responsibility” of the Federal government to arrange for equitable access to health and to a fair share of cost. In doing so the Report neither makes justice nor beneficence the prime moral principle in public health care, it rather calls for a common sense approach in “approximating adequacy”. But how to define equality without creating uniformity in a society rich in its diversity, including attitudes towards health?
ISSN:0360-5310
1744-5019
DOI:10.1093/jmp/8.4.381