Carlatan, City of San Fernando

College of Nursing

HEALTH CARE ETHICS( NCM 108)

FIRST SEMESTER SY 2020-2021
FINALS ACTIVITY 5

What are the roles of Ethics in Resource Allocation? Why it Matters?

 Resource allocation in health and elsewhere should satisfy two main ethical
criteria. First, it should be cost-effective—limited resources for health should be
allocated to maximize the health benefits for the population served. A cost-
effectiveness analysis (CEA) of alternative health interventions measures their
respective costs and benefits to determine their relative efficiency in the
production of health. Second, the allocation should be equitable or just; equity is
concerned with the distribution of benefits and costs to distinct individuals or
groups. The maximization of benefits, which is associated with the general
philosophical moral theory of utilitarianism or consequentialism, however, is
routinely criticized for ignoring those considerations. Equity in health care
distribution is complex and embodies several distinct moral concerns or issues
that this chapter delineates.
 Efficiency and equity can sometimes coincide. In some of the world's poorest
countries, for example, health budgets support tertiary care and travel to clinics
abroad for the elite and the well connected, even as the poor are denied
effective, low-cost prevention or treatment for life-threatening diseases.

If healthcare resources are scarce, how should they be distributed?

Distribution choices will benefit some and not others. How should choices be
made? What values should guide these choices?
 Ethical decisions must be always involved in scarce of resource in healthcare.
Health care workers the most priority for the resources so that they can help
other people and those responsible for educating and caring for the patients.
Also, other health care professionals must use to make a fair decision when
allocating a resource in times of scarce. The most important is making a fair and
ethical choices is to assure that all the decisions are made through and impartial
process to make all the people fair with the resources.