Public Preferences About Fairness and the Ethics of Allocating Scarce Medical Interventions

Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between social-scientific research on public preferences regarding allocation and ethical inquiry into how resources should be allocated. It also explains how social-scientific researchers might find an understanding of work in ethics useful as they design mechanisms for data collection and analysis. I proceed by first distinguishing the methodologies used in ethics from those used in the social sciences. I then provide an overview of different approaches to the ethics of allocating scarce medical interventions, including an approach—the complete lives system—which I have previously defended, and a brief recap of social-scientific research on the allocation of scarce medical resources. Following these overviews, I examine different ways in which public preferences could matter to the ethics of allocation. Last, I suggest some ways in which social scientists could learn from ethics as they conduct research into public preferences regarding the allocation of scarce medical resources.