When health means wealth, can bioethicists respond?
Around the world the wealthy can get their lives extended while the poor get little basic medical help. Over the same years that the field of bioethics has prospered and expanded, this disparity has increased. Reasons for the failure of bioethics to successfully address this health/wealth issue include its identification with the cognitive and social authority of medicine; its gatekeeping behavior; its funding sources; its questionable use of "principlism" and its emphasis on crises and dilemmas to the neglect of "housekeeping" issues. The work of most women in bioethics rarely addresses the health/wealth issue; if it does, their work may be ignored, as were the recommendations of Canadian feminists working under government grants. To achieve equity in health care, the structure of both medicine and bioethics needs to be changed. Yet, since bioethicists generally have accepted the status quo, this seems unlikely to happen.
Holmes
H B
HB
Center for Genetics, Ethics and Women Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. fholmes@pltpath.umass.edu
D001675:Bioethics; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D012923:Social Class; D012935:Social Justice; D014481:United States