Fair Innings? Against Healthcare Rationing in Favour of the Young over the Elderly

Abstract

This article provides a critical appraisal of the case for healthcare being rationed away from older patients to those who are younger. After sketching a metaphysics of elderliness and reviewing clinical and economic cases for healthcare rationing, the article looks in depth at the most challenging case for age rationing known as the ‘fair innings’ case. This article rejects that case and makes an alternative case that fairness actually dictates against age rationing in favour of allocation on the basis of need. It concludes with a call for a renewed ‘covenant between generations’, founded on the virtue of pietas.