ABSTRACT
Health reflects on, and refers to social interconnectedness. Health is necessary for the rational participation of individuals in society. Health is a necessary condition for the social contract. This chapter shows the complexity of the interrelated ideas of justice, health, interconnectedness, and longevity. John Rawls' theory of justice thus permits the existence of social and economic inequalities only to the extent those inequalities can be shown to provide social and economic benefits for all. Norman Daniels works through the fairness of different schemes of the distribution of healthcare resources, one of which determines that no person over a certain age will receive high-cost, life-extending technologies. Daniels distinguishes between healthcare needs and healthcare preferences in sorting out what a just society must distribute fairly in order for individuals to function rationally within a social contract, and considers as well the role of justice as fairness in sorting out and fairly distributing opportunities for life chances.
