title: [Age as a criterion for restraining treatment. The evidence and the bias].
abstract: At the present moment, one of the debates concerning bioethics is focussed on age as criterion for rationing health care. The increase in average life expectancy and aging population on one side, and the scarcity of the economic resources on the other, are the main reasons for the controversy. The two sides of the dispute contest on the economic and ethical arguments. The society, mainly the sectors more involved in the dispute, should concern in the study and reflection of this problem, in order to attain the conceivable consensus.
authors.affiliation: Assistente Hospitalar Graduado no Serviço de Pneumologia do Hospital de Santa Maria, Lisboa, Mestre em Bioética.
authors.forename: Filipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Monteiro
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015982:Bias; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans