ABSTRACT
The idea of need pervades social work and it pervades also the social policies that shape the institutions under whose aegis that work takes place. Need is sometimes suggested as a criterion for distribution of benefits and burdens in a society. Disagreements about need are not unusual. Parents disagree about their children’s need, doctors about the patient’s, teachers about the pupil’s etc. The role of the concept of need in political and moral discourse is conspicuous and power-ful. Needs are attributed to persons in order to support demands, establish entitlements or influence the ordering of priorities. The special force which need exerts in social matters is not invariant between different needs. Basic and vital needs are things which are necessary for survival or for living a decent life, respectively. It would be to create great damage, for instance, to prevent a person from obtaining necessary food or necessary education.
