Introduction: Medicine and Social Justice: Essays on the Distribution of Health Care

This book discusses the issue of social justice in medicine through an in-depth analysis of both philosophical theory and health care policy and practice. It explores a wide range of approaches to the issues of justice in health care, as well as the connections between theoretical accounts of justice and observations of justice (and injustice) in practice. It considers why it is important for a health care system to be ideally just, and what conditions of social justice or injustice in the background society affect justice in health care. The relevant theoretical discussion of justice draws on Aristotle, who defines "justice" as treating like cases alike and different cases differently. Some chapters also draw on John Rawls's influential theory of justice to address issues ranging from resource allocation in medicine and public health to poverty, equality, democracy, and the human right to health care, along with medical malpractice and tort reform.