The Elderly and Health Care Rationing

This Monograph derives from research undertaken during my appointment as a Visiting Scholar at The Poynter Center for The Study of Ethics and American Institutions, Indiana University, Bloomington in July-August, 2000. The thesis of this Monograph is that before contemporary society can confront the issue of health care rationing for the elderly, it must seek to integrate the disciplines of moral and ethical reasoning with the qualitative formulations of needs and resources. Until such a point is reached, however, the greatest danger to avoid is the perpetuation of non-decisions regarding health care treatment. Such decisions all too frequently result in the non-treatment of elderly patients and institutional residents because of an inability to assess effectively the equitable and efficient allocation of the scarce health care resources which are available. The real moral question raised from this debate is not whether too much treatment or too little is offered. Rather, it is how to optimize the appropriateness of the treatment; and therein lies the moral obligation of health care as well. However difficult or tragic the allocative decisions are to make, taking no action is perhaps the most pernicious conduct of all. Society must realize that aging is not a disease, but an inherent part of human life