Panel Discussion

Priority-setting in public health and health care usually requires decision-makers to take into account a broad and heterogeneous range of scientific, economic, political, and moral considerations. In contrast to richly detailed case studies, drawn from actual practice, that are often used in studying priority-setting, we will consider and work through a series of highly simplified dilemmas that require us to focus on one ethical issue at a time. These scenarios are, necessarily, unrealistic; nevertheless, the issues they address arise very frequently on the job. This series of cases is intended as an instrument for education and for research, and are available without restriction to participants. The group will work through as many of the cases as time permits. Participants will be invited to improve the cases and to add cases of their own to the series.

Session Objectives: 1. Identify ethical issues arising in health resource priority-setting, particularly in public health and global health 2. Develop capacities for rigorous ethical reasoning in attempting to resolve the dilemmas in the cases. 3. Contribute to the development of a series of highly simplified resource-allocation dilemmas arising in actual practice, to be used for education and for research.