The bioethics and the problem of health care access

Abstract

This study deals with the contribution of the bioethical reflection to the health care access problem. It starts from the recognition of the shortage of material and human resources that result in choices of allocation to be made by society, which should be guided by ethical and legal criterions. The study describes, for purposes of illustration, the bioethical thought developed by some referential authors from United States, Spain, Portugal and Latin America, which were chosen at random, just with the aim at illustrating the approach of the matter either in the liberal tradition of trade allocation as well as in the social tradition of public expenses allocation. At last, the study searches for some relations between these two approaches in order to find out a common treatment of the problem under a bioethical standpoint. The study is also directed to demonstrate that health care access issue is related to the bioethics.