Health, Life and Death: You Decide Mark Hage, Law Winstanley College

Introduction ● Law Healthcare ● About healthcare “rationing “ ● Ethics – Deciding what the right thing to do is. ● Where should the law come if not from ethics? ● What we are going to do today ● Meet 3 people who need treatment – only 2 can have it ● Find reasons why “your patient” deserves it ● Find reasons why another patient doesn’t ● The teacher will judge

Healthcare rationing is inevitable ● People keep living longer ● As we live longer, we need more healthcare in a lifetime ● As societies get richer, they spend a bigger % of national income on health ● Demand is great, and funding is always finite ● All public and private healthcare systems have limits ● Someone has to decide limits in private insurance schemes – private policymaking ● In the UK, rationing may increase in age of austerity

Rationing is a matter of policy ● Who deserves what healthcare and why? ● It’s a policy decision – made by politicians and also the legal system, through the courts ● It can be a matter of life and death ● Imagine you had to make policy – how would you decide what to do? ● That’s what this session is about

3 people – only 2 can be treated ● You will hear from 3 needy cases ● We only have funding to treat 2 of them ● Who should be treated? ● Each table will argue for one person, and against one person ● The judges hear your reasons, and then decide! ● It’s time to meet the 3 people who want treatment…

Your group work – reasons for ● Find three reasons why “your patient” should get treatment ● Note them down on flip chart sheet ● Get ready with 1 minute to persuade the judges!

Your group work – reasons against ● Discuss which of the other two patients should not get treatment ● Find up to three reasons why that “other patient” should NOT get treatment ● Choose a scribe and note down reasons on a sheet ● Get ready with 30 seconds to persuade the judge!

Feedback - The woman who wants a baby: the case for and against ● Supporting table - 1 minute with reasons in favour ● Anyone against? Give your reasons against

Feedback - The man with lung cancer: the case for and against ● Supporting table - 1 minute with reasons in favour ● Anyone against? Give your reasons against

Feedback - The man who wants a jab in the eye: the case for and against ● Supporting table - 1 minute with reasons in favour ● Anyone against? Give your reasons against

What do you conclude from that? ● Do deserving cases matter? ● Should it matter if you can pay for yourself? ● Who should make these decisions? ● Is it a matter for elected politicians and the law?

What do others say and do? ● What do the economists say? ● What do philosophers and ethicists say? ● Who makes these decisions in England? ● No easy answers: everyone finds it difficult

Let’s hear what our judge says…

Before you go ● Thanks to: ● Our actors ● Our judge ● And to you