Breast augmentation should be on the NHS: a discussion of the ethics of rationing

Every NHS clinician is under constant pressure to match limited resources to increasing demands. The GMC provides guidelines about how we should ration: 'you should always seek to give priority to the treatment of patients solely on the basis of clinical need'. However, this gives no indication as to what is 'need'. Often, in its application, certain assumptions are made about the nature of clinical need. To examine some of these assumptions in more detail, I will argue the case for a treatment that is on the borderline of the remit of NHS care--breast augmentation.