{"id":41,"date":"2008-12-10T13:30:55","date_gmt":"2008-12-10T12:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=41"},"modified":"2018-08-19T14:02:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T13:02:38","slug":"health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2008\/12\/10\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Health care as a testing ground for theories of distributive justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By David Hunter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Political philosophy has historically been a surprisingly unreal subject and distributive justice as a sub-field has fared no better, indeed some of the primary discussions have focused on the distribution of plover eggs and claret and taken place on desert islands. There is some sense to this, abstracting away from society and normal circumstances can be an excellent method of testing the implications of principles. However there are also some dangers of this, to be frank who is that fussed by the distribution of claret and plover eggs? Given this health care distribution makes an excellent crucible for testing political theories of distributive justice. In this arena questions of distribution matter crucially for people, they are literally life or death.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\">So I&#8217;d like to lay down the gauntlet for my fellow political philosophers&#8230; &#8220;so you think you&#8217;ve got a good theory of distributive justice? How does it do in this context?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By David Hunter Political philosophy has historically been a surprisingly unreal subject and distributive justice as a sub-field has fared no better, indeed some of the primary discussions have focused on the distribution of plover eggs and claret and taken place on desert islands. There is some sense to this, abstracting away from society and [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2008\/12\/10\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[472],"tags":[698,699],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thinking-aloud","tag-distributive-justice-in-health-care","tag-political-philosophy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Health care as a testing ground for theories of distributive justice - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2008\/12\/10\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health care as a testing ground for theories of distributive justice - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By David Hunter Political philosophy has historically been a surprisingly unreal subject and distributive justice as a sub-field has fared no better, indeed some of the primary discussions have focused on the distribution of plover eggs and claret and taken place on desert islands. There is some sense to this, abstracting away from society and [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2008\/12\/10\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-10T12:30:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-19T13:02:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/10\\\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/10\\\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Health care as a testing ground for theories of distributive justice\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-10T12:30:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-19T13:02:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/10\\\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":167,\"commentCount\":17,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"distributive justice in health care\",\"political philosophy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Thinking Aloud\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/10\\\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/10\\\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/10\\\/health-care-as-a-testing-ground-for-theories-of-distributive-justice\\\/\",\"name\":\"Health care as a testing ground for theories of distributive justice - 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