ABSTRACT
Resources are limited. Therefore rationing of resources is necessary. Rationing is not new. Rationing is an ethical issue; in particular, it raises issues of justice and rights. Dentists, as professionals, have a duty to consider the ethics of resource allocation at both the micro and macro levels. The effort or merit suggests resources should be allocated according to how hard an individual works rather than the direct contribution. The free market view holds that all social arrangements and distribution of resources is the product of voluntary exchanges within society in a free market. The basis of the professional model is that dentistry is a moral practice and dentists therefore are concerned with using their expertise to advance the welfare of patients. Thus they are doing for patients, within the ethical code of the profession, what patients wish to have done. The primacy of the dentist's duty of care is paramount.
