Abstract
In the popular folklore three-score-years-and-ten is treated as a fair innings for people, and thereby serves as an informal reference point for judgements about distributive justice within a community. But length of life alone is an insufficient basis for such judgements - a person's health-related quality-of-life also needs to be taken into account. If one of the objectives of public policy is to reduce inequalities in lifetime health, it will be demonstrated that this is very likely to require systematic discrimination against the older members of a community. The notion of community solidatity will also be tested, because a decision will need to be made as to whether the same fair innings applies to all members of the community, or whether some are entitled to more than others. The strength of the fair innings principle is that it brings these issues to the fore in a systematic way which should ais their resolition in a practical context.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Bell J.M. and Mendus S. (eds.), Philosophy and Medical Welfare. Supplement to 'Philosophy', Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series 23, Cambridge University Press, 1988. See especially the contributions from Lockwood, M., Quality of Life and Resource Allocation, pp. 33–56, Broome, J., Good, Fairness and QLYs pp. 57-74, and Harris, J., More and Better Justice pp. 75-96.
Callahan, D., Setting Limits: Medical Goals in an Aging Society. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.
Culyer, A.J., Equality of What in Health Policy? Conflicts between the Contenders, Discussion paper no 142, Centre for Health Economics, University of York, UK, November 1995.
Williams, A., Intergenerational Equity: An Exploration of the 'Fair Innings' Argument, Health Economics 6 (1997) pp. 117–132.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Williams, A. Inequalities in Health and Intergenerational Equity. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 2, 47–55 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009922327634
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009922327634