ABSTRACT
In health care policy-making liberal utilitarianism, or liberal egalitarianism, stands for an extensive system of socialized medicine, accompanied with a zealous respect for the autonomy of patients and other users of the services. Libertarians state that moral choices should be left almost exclusively to those who pay for the services rendered by health care professionals and biomedical research groups. The purpose of socialist health care policymaking is to provide people with all the medical treatment - and other health-related services - that they genuinely need. If Lord Illingworth's elitism tends to seem inpalatable to the democratic minds, it is useful to remember the kind of public opinion he is referring to. The core idea of socialism, at least in its democratic form, is that the working classes - or the majority - should form an extensive system of goverment which aims at securing everybody's positive claim-right to the equal satisfaction of vital needs.
