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The philosophy of healthcare is the study of the ethics, processes, and people which constitute the maintenance of health for human beings. (Although veterinary concerns are worthy to note, the body of thought regarding their methodologies and practices is not addressed in this article.) For the most part, however, the philosophy of healthcare is best approached as an indelible component of human social structures. That is, the societal institution of healthcare can be seen as a necessary phenomenon of human civilization whereby an individual continually seeks to improve, mend, and alter the overall nature and quality of his or her life. This perennial concern is especially prominent in modern political liberalism, wherein health has been understood as the foundational good necessary for public life.〔Yuval Levin, "Putting Health in Perspective," ''The New Atlantis'' ()〕 The philosophy of healthcare is primarily concerned with the following elemental questions: *Who requires and/or deserves healthcare? Is healthcare a fundamental right of all people? *What should be the basis for calculating the cost of treatments, hospital stays, drugs, etc.? *How can healthcare best be administered to the greatest number of people? *What are the necessary parameters for clinical trials and quality assurance? *Who, if anybody, can decide when a patient is in need of "comfort measures" (euthanasia)? However, the most important question of all is 'what is health?'. Unless this question is addressed any debate about healthcare will be vague and unbounded. For example, what exactly is a health care intervention? What differentiates healthcare from engineering or teaching, for example? Is health care about 'creating autonomy' or acting in people's best interests? Or is it always both? A 'philosophy' of anything requires baseline philosophical questions, as asked, for example, by philosopher (David Seedhouse ). Ultimately, the purpose, objective and meaning of healthcare philosophy is to consolidate the abundance of information regarding the ever-changing fields of biotechnology, medicine, and nursing. And seeing that healthcare typically ranks as one of the largest spending areas of governmental budgets, it becomes important to gain a greater understanding of healthcare as not only a social institution, but also as a political one. In addition, healthcare philosophy attempts to highlight the primary movers of healthcare systems; be it nurses, doctors, allied health professionals, hospital administrators, health insurance companies (HMOs and PPOs), the government (Medicare and Medicaid), and lastly, the patients themselves. ==Ethics of healthcare== The ethical and/or moral premises of healthcare are complex and intricate. To consolidate such a large segment of moral philosophy, it becomes important to focus on what separates healthcare ethics from other forms of morality. And on the whole, it can be said that healthcare itself is a "''special''" institution within society.〔Norman Daniels, "Healthcare Needs and Distributive Justice," ''Bioethics'' Ed. John Harris (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 319.〕 With that said, healthcare ought to "be treated differently from other social goods" in a society.〔Daniels, "Healthcare Needs and Distributive Justice," 319.〕 It is an institution of which we are all a part whether we like it or not. At some point in every person's life, a decision has to be made regarding one's healthcare. Can he/she afford it? Does he/she deserve it? Does he/she need it? Where should he/she go to get it? Does he/she even want it? And it is this last question which poses the biggest dilemma facing a person. After weighing all of the costs and benefits of her healthcare situation, the person has to decide if the costs of healthcare outweigh the benefits. More than basic economic issues are at stake in this conundrum. In fact, a person must decide whether or not his/her life is ending or if it is worth salvaging. Of course, in instances where the patient is unable to decide due to medical complications, like a coma, then the decision must come from elsewhere. And defining that "elsewhere" has proven to be a very difficult endeavor in healthcare philosophy. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Philosophy of healthcare」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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