title: The moral relevance of personal characteristics in setting health care priorities.
abstract: This paper discusses the moral relevance of accounting for various personal characteristics when prioritising between groups of patients. After a review of the results from empirical studies, we discuss the ethical reasons which might explain-and justify-the views expressed in these studies. The paper develops a general framework based upon the causes of ill health and the consequences of treatment. It then turns to the question of the extent to which a personal characteristic-and the eventual underlying ethical justification of its relevance-could have any relationships to these causes and consequences. We attempt to disentangle those characteristics that may reflect a potentially relevant justification from those which violate widely accepted principles of social justice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Tromso, Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, 9037 Tromsø, Norway. jano@ism.uit.no
authors.forename: Jan Abel
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dolan
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Menzel
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics; D004645:Empathy; D028663:Ethical Theory; D015438:Health Behavior; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000941:ethics*; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000145:classification / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000941:ethics; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000941:ethics*; D012935:Social Justice; D012941:Social Responsibility