Scientific article
English

Fairness in military care: might a hybrid concept of equity be the answer?

Published inMilitary and humanitarian health ethics, p. 155-171; Chapter 10
Publication date2023-05
First online date2023-05-19
Abstract

Applying equity to health care is difficult and it is especially challenging when applied to cases that involve urgent military medicine care under resource scarcity. Part of the difficulty centers on the concept of equity itself. It is not clear what the best concept of equity applicable to medical care would be, or that there should be only one, or the same ones, across all levels of military health care. Despite the fact that equity is a key concern in health care, particularly in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be that there is no single theory of justice that would be most justified for military physicians to use. This paper examines whether a hybrid position of equity might be both theoretically robust and applicable in practice. After briefly introducing the discussion, we outline four major philosophical definitions of equity – (1) Egalitarianism, (2) Prioritarianism, (3) Desertism, and (4) Sufficientism. We then report empirical findings suggesting that a practice-based hybrid concept of equity is used by physicians within the practice of micro-allocation. Our findings will shed lights on ethical justifications and reasoning which should guide medical rules for military and humanitarian health care providers.

Keywords
  • Desertism
  • Egalitarianism
  • Equity
  • Hybrid views
  • Prioritarianism
UNIGE research groups
Citation (ISO format)
GILBERT, Frederic, STEVENS, Ian, HURST, Samia. Fairness in military care: might a hybrid concept of equity be the answer? In: Military and humanitarian health ethics, 2023, p. 155–171. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-29059-6_10
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelRestricted
Identifiers
Journal ISSN2524-5465
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Creation29/11/2023 14:04:59
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Update03/12/2024 16:33:40
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