Rawlsian Justice and Palliative Care

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Health Justice
• Palliative Care

Background:

• Palliative care is crucial in treatment and end-of-life care.
• Distributive justice in healthcare often overlooks the provision and justification of palliative care.
• Norman Daniels' Rawlsian approach is a prominent framework for healthcare justice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the adequacy of Norman Daniels' Rawlsian approach in justifying palliative care.
• To determine if Daniels' framework can provide reasons for comprehensive palliative care, including pain relief.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical analysis of Norman Daniels' Rawlsian theory of justice in healthcare.
• Examination of the implications of Daniels' "opportunity to function" principle for palliative care provision.

Main Results:

• Daniels' framework, focused on restoring opportunities, fails to provide justice-based reasons for palliative care.
• The approach cannot justify pain relief for patients needing it alongside curative treatment.
• It also fails to support palliative care for individuals whose opportunities cannot be restored.

Conclusions:

• The Rawlsian approach, as developed by Daniels, is insufficient for justifying comprehensive palliative care.
• The framework's limitations make it less attractive for guiding healthcare justice concerning end-of-life and supportive care.