Fair Innings and Need over a Lifetime

One can argue that the principle of equal opportunity supports age-based limits on life-extending medical care. There are two versions of this argument. The first version is that critically ill elderly patients have had more opportunity for well-being over their lifetimes than younger patients. Consequently, “age-based limits are supported by the principle of equal opportunity.” We can refer to this version as the “equal opportunity for lifetime well-being argument.” The second version is that these age-based limits can be defended on the grounds that, insofar as possible, there should be an equal opportunity to live to the same age as others. We can refer to this version as the “equal opportunity to live to the same age as others” argument.