Centre for Policy on Ageing



Rationing scarce life-sustaining resources on the basis of age
Author(s)	Clare M Clarke
Journal title	Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol 35, no 5, 2001
Pages	pp 792-798
Keywords	Medical care ; Grant allocation ; Attitudes to the old of general public ; Policy.
Annotation	Although an explicit policy of rationing by age within the UK has not been formulated, decisions to withhold or withdraw treatment are already being made on the basis of patients' biological age rather than medical need. Three contrasting arguments are analysed: the "equal worth", "fair innings", and prudential lifespan". In certain circumstances, rationing by age is both morally permissible and justified. However, the capacity to benefit from treatment has to be considered, whatever the age of the individual; and any measure of benefit needs to take a broad range of medical, ethical and economic factors into account. If age is to be used as a criterion to ration limited resources, national guidelines need to be developed and applied consistently, to ensure that arbitrary differences in the treatment received by older people does not occur. (OFFPRINT.) (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020103201 A
Classmark	LK: QCG: TOB: QAD *
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.