PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Daniel Hausman
TI  - The significance of ‘severity’
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2018-105058
DP  - 2019 Aug 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 545--551
VI  - 45
IP  - 8
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/45/8/545.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/45/8/545.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2019 Aug 01; 45
AB  - This essay considers whether permitting the cost-effectiveness of healthcare to govern its allocation is ethically objectionable on the grounds that it fails to give sufficient weight to the severity of people’s health states. After documenting the popular sentiment that appears to support this criticism, the essay considers how to implement prioritising severity, focusing on Erik Nord’s work. The remainder of the essay scrutinises the ethical arguments supporting policies prioritising severity and challenges those who would prioritise severity to define a notion of severity whose prioritisation they can defend.