this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: Should Every Human Being Get Health Care?
Subtitle: Priorities in Health Care and the Principle of Human Dignity
Author(s): COLLSTE, Göran
Journal: Ethical Perspectives
Volume: 6    Issue: 2   Date: 1999   
Pages: 115-125
DOI: 10.2143/EP.6.2.505350

Abstract :
Due to the increasing cost of health care and the diminishing resources available, priority of health care resources has become a most important political and ethical issue. What principles should guide the decisions of priorities? The Swedish Commission of Priorities in Health Care proposed in 1995 that priorities in health care should be based on a Principle of Human Dignity (PHD). Later, the recommendations of the commission were implemented in Swedish law.
The question I will try to answer in this article is whether a principle of human dignity is helpful when establishing priorities in health care. What implications, if any, will it have for the decisions on how to make priorities?

Download article