Meaning, medicine, and merit
Given the inevitability of scarcity, should public institutions ration healthcare resources so as to prioritize those who contribute more to society? Intuitively, we may feel that this would be somehow inegalitarian. I argue that the egalitarian objection to prioritizing treatment on the basis of pa...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2019
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| _version_ | 1797053973805400064 |
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| author | Mogensen, A |
| author_facet | Mogensen, A |
| author_sort | Mogensen, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Given the inevitability of scarcity, should public institutions ration healthcare resources so as to prioritize those who contribute more to society? Intuitively, we may feel that this would be somehow inegalitarian. I argue that the egalitarian objection to prioritizing treatment on the basis of patients’ usefulness to others is best thought of as semiotic: i.e. as having to do with what this practice would mean, convey, or express about a person’s standing. I explore the implications of this conclusion when taken in conjunction with the observation that semiotic objections are generally flimsy, failing to identify anything wrong with a practice as such and having limited capacity to generalize beyond particular contexts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T18:51:05Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:103a80f1-2ab5-40a3-99d1-8f39c40fa99f |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T18:51:05Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:103a80f1-2ab5-40a3-99d1-8f39c40fa99f2022-03-26T09:55:30ZMeaning, medicine, and meritJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:103a80f1-2ab5-40a3-99d1-8f39c40fa99fEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordCambridge University Press2019Mogensen, AGiven the inevitability of scarcity, should public institutions ration healthcare resources so as to prioritize those who contribute more to society? Intuitively, we may feel that this would be somehow inegalitarian. I argue that the egalitarian objection to prioritizing treatment on the basis of patients’ usefulness to others is best thought of as semiotic: i.e. as having to do with what this practice would mean, convey, or express about a person’s standing. I explore the implications of this conclusion when taken in conjunction with the observation that semiotic objections are generally flimsy, failing to identify anything wrong with a practice as such and having limited capacity to generalize beyond particular contexts. |
| spellingShingle | Mogensen, A Meaning, medicine, and merit |
| title | Meaning, medicine, and merit |
| title_full | Meaning, medicine, and merit |
| title_fullStr | Meaning, medicine, and merit |
| title_full_unstemmed | Meaning, medicine, and merit |
| title_short | Meaning, medicine, and merit |
| title_sort | meaning medicine and merit |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mogensena meaningmedicineandmerit |