Utilitarianism In Healthcare

In a recent article on healthcare, entitled Value in Cancer Care, it was announced the American Society of Clinical Oncology are proposing to provide “a tool to help patients decide if cancer drugs are worth it”. A group of doctors are proposing this tool to give people a way of measuring “what treatment will cost them and how much good it is likely to do” in making an informed decision on their care. (Marchione, 2015) The reason for this is cited as being due to the rising cost of cancer treatment and patients themselves incurring more of the costs. The original article, entitled: American Society of Clinical Oncology Statement: A Conceptual Framework to Assess the Value of Cancer Treatment Options, in referring to value states: “the definition
Many discussions are held on the allocation of health care funds and many decisions made on how it should be distributed. This fair distribution of resources is referred to as distributive justice. One distributive justice approach used in the healthcare field looks at the quality adjusted life year (QALY). The effectiveness of a treatment is based on an increase in the length and/or quality of life. This uses the utilitarianism theory which supports taking the action that results in the most good for the largest number of people. The end result is justified even if there are some undesirable actions to be taken to reach that end. Some argue against the use of this approach in healthcare as it is said to discriminate against the elderly. This is in contrast to the deontological approach which supports taking the right action, even though it may not bring the preferred results. This was supported by John Rawls theory that everyone in society should have equal opportunity, a theory used in reference to healthcare by Norman Daniels to support the argument everyone in society has an equal right to basic
(Messer, 2006, p. 126) MacIntyre blamed this on the failed Enlightenment project in ethics when there was an attempt to separate ethics from other sources of authority. Our modern approach to justice in decision making is said to be missing the inherited sense of what justice is. Virtues are said to be qualities of character which help us make sound judgements. The tradition of virtues, which we inherited through scripture and philosophy, included the cardinal virtues of courage, temperance, prudence and justice. These cardinal virtues are said to have to be used together in the right balance, not in isolation. (Messer, 2006)
The theological virtues of faith, hope and love were later added to the cardinal virtues based on 1 Cor 13.13. According to Thomas Aquinas the cardinal virtues direct our lives toward our natural ends, or goals; while the theological virtues guide us toward an ultimate end of a personal union with God. He was of the opinion we could not reach our natural ends without God’s