title: Pediatric heart surgery in Ghana: three ethical questions.
abstract: When a group of doctors and nurses from Boston, Massachusetts, provided evaluation and heart surgery to children in Ghana, they encountered three rationing dilemmas: (1) What portion of surgery slots should they reserve for the simplest, most cost-effective surgeries? (2) How much time should be reserved for especially simple, nonsurgical interventions? (3) How much time should be reserved to training local staff to perform such surgeries? This article investigates these three dilemmas.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, 641 Huntington Avenue, 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02115 USA. nir_eyal@hms.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eyal
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001900:Boston; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000193:education* / Q000941:ethics; D002648:Child; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000941:ethics*; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000941:ethics; D028663:Ethical Theory; D005869:Ghana; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000941:ethics*; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D008493:Medical Missions; D018579:Patient Selection / Q000941:ethics*; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000193:education / Q000941:ethics; D017748:Time Management