The fair innings argument maintains that for healthcare resources to be distributed fairly every person should receive sufficient healthcare to provide them with the opportunity to live in good health ...

Objectives—To investigate the factors considered by staff, and the practicalities involved in the decision making process regarding the withdrawal or withholding of potential life-sustaining treatment ...

In this paper, we argue that there are important ethical questions about healthcare improvement which are underexplored. We start by drawing on two existing literatures: first, the prevailing, ...

Given that only a small fraction of patients with cancer exhibits specific markers making them eligible for effective ...

Correspondence to Associate Professor Neil John Pickering, Bioethics Centre, University of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine, Dunedin, New Zealand; neil.pickering{at}otago.ac.nz In a recent JME article ...

When thinking about population level healthcare priority setting decisions, such as those made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, good medical ethics requires attention to three ...

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The contention that paternalism can be modernised in such a way as to avoid the usual criticisms is examined and dismissed. The alleged 'modernisation' consists simply in going through the motions of ...

Consent ought to be required to withhold treatment that is in a patient’s best interests to receive. Do not resuscitate (DNR) orders are examples of best interests assessments at the end of life. Such ...

Some patients have no chance of surviving if not treated, but very little chance if treated. A number of medical ethicists and physicians have argued that treatment in such cases is medically futile ...