Journal of medical ethics
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Journal of medical ethics · Sep 2009
A note on Brock: prioritarianism, egalitarianism and the distribution of life years.
The moral philosopher Dan Brock has argued that equality of health outcomes "even if achievable" is problematic as a goal in its own right-because it is open to the levelling down objection. The levelling down objection to egalitarianism has received surprisingly little attention in the bioethics literature on distribution of health and healthcare and deserves more attention. This paper discusses and accepts an example given by Brock showing that prioritarianism and egalitarianism may judge distributions of health outcomes differently. ⋯ Levelling down is not an embarrassment for egalitarians if they adopt a pluralist theory that integrates fairness with goodness. Equality is not the only value egalitarians promote. But equality is so important that we should not reject it.
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Journal of medical ethics · Sep 2009
Nursing in asylum seeker detention in Australia: care, rights and witnessing.
The system of asylum seeker detention in Australia is one in which those seeking refuge are stripped of many of their rights, including the right to health. This presents serious ethical problems for healthcare providers working within this system. In this article we describe asylum seeker detention and analyse the role of nurses. We discuss how far an "ethics of care" and witnessing the suffering of asylum seekers can serve to improve their situation and improve ethical nursing practice.