ABSTRACT
Ethics, as a discipline within philosophy, is concerned with evaluating and establishing the criteria for normative judgments of value and judgments of responsibility and duty. The achievement of justice has been the central moral mandate within our judicial system. Rationing of health care for the elderly is discriminatory; it violates the principle of justice, and it threatens the right of self-determination. Fully informing the patient about the matters is often a psychological and personal problem for the health-care providers more than it is for the patient and the family. Most of the literature regarding patient autonomy relates to crisis situations that involve acute care. The chapter outlines a model for home care that will accommodate autonomy and strike a balance between autonomy and beneficence. Special comment is warranted when the numbers of a group reflect a significant proportion of the population or those with special health-care needs require the utilization of a disproportionate amount of the available health-care resources.
