SOC 331 Week 3 DQ 1 Distributive Justice Across the Generations

Distributive Justice Across the Generations. In Chapter 3 of your textbook, the author discusses how demographic differences, such as age, influence understandings of distributive justice. He also reviews how libertarian, utilitarian, and egalitarian theories of distributive justice enter into conversations across demographic divides.

The soaring cost of health care, the limitations of the economy in paying for health care, and the growing proportion of the population who are over age 65, have given rise to serious discussion, at times acrimonious, about the possible need to or the justice of rationing health care to that age group. A common definition of rationing is withholding some specific medical treatments for reasons other than a patient’s desire to have the treatment (e.g., Medicare not paying for certain treatments for very elderly patients).

In your discussion, you must, from the perspective of distributive justice, summarize the major arguments on both sides (the pros and cons) of the issue of whether health care should be rationed to the elderly. You must also characterize these arguments according to whether they are primarily libertarian, utilitarian, or egalitarian in nature. Finally, you will evaluate these arguments from your view of distributive justice, explaining both how your personal life experiences and your own libertarian, utilitarian, or egalitarian views influence your evaluation.