Abstract
In the last chapter we considered the ideas of utilitarianism and questioned whether they had anything to offer when making decisions about the allocation of scarce resources. On the whole we found that it was not helpful to try to decide morality on the basis of the overall amount of good produced. We seem to have an overriding obligation to consider individual needs, even if they are met at the expense of the interests of the majority.
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Notes and References
A. V. Campbell, Moral Dilemmas in Medicine, 3rd edn (Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1984).
J. Butler, Fifteen Sermons, ed. T. A. Roberts (First published 1726) (London: SPCK, 1970).
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica.
A. Kenny, Aquinas (Oxford University Press, 1980).
R. Scruton, A Short History of Modem Philosophy: from Descartes to Wittgenstein (London: ARK Paperbacks, 1984).
A. T. Altschul, ‘There won’t be a next time’, in V. Rippere, R. Williams, (eds.) Wounded Healers (Chichester: John Wiley & Son, 1985).
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© 1989 Kath M. Melia
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Melia, K.M. (1989). The Search for Objectivity. In: Everyday Nursing Ethics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10399-7_9
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