Choosing Who's to Live

Book excerpt: The population is rapidly aging while access to proper and affordable medical treatment is becoming more and more limited. This impasse challenges us to make ethical decisions regarding the rationing of health care. Arguing that de facto rationing is already taking place due to economic necessity and that proper management of this rationing is essential to the fair and ethical treatment of all seeking care, Choosing Who's to Live directly addresses one of the most challenging moral questions of our day. Appearing in the wake of increasing awareness of health care reform, this volume identifies four compelling arguments for managed health care rationing: the number of citizens over age eighty-five will increase 500 percent by the year 2040; current baby boomers could live longer than today's elderly by seven to fifteen years; new medical technologies are appearing every day; and the ratio of workers to retirees will be 1:4 in forty years instead of the current 1:2.5. In this volume, six leading scholars take the discussion of rationing health care beyond the simple idea of withholding government-funded, live-saving treatment from the very old to a more ethical, effective treatment plan for all.