title: The ethics and reality of rationing in medicine.
abstract: Rationing is the allocation of scarce resources, which in health care necessarily entails withholding potentially beneficial treatments from some individuals. Rationing is unavoidable because need is limitless and resources are not. How rationing occurs is important because it not only affects individual lives but also expresses society's most important values. This article discusses the following topics: (1) the inevitability of rationing of social goods, including medical care; (2) types of rationing; (3) ethical principles and procedures for fair allocation; and (4) whether rationing ICU care to those near the end of life would result in substantial cost savings.
authors.affiliation: Division of Geriatric Medicine and Center for Aging and Health, University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, NC; Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA.
authors.forename: Leslie P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Scheunemann
authors.affiliation: Division of Geriatric Medicine and Center for Aging and Health, University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, NC; Program on Ethics and Decision Making in Critical Illness, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Center for Bioethics and Health Law, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. Electronic address: whitedb@upmc.edu.
authors.forename: Douglas B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000191:economics; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000941:ethics; D012935:Social Justice; D014481:United States