ABSTRACT
The fundamental human problem which economists seek to understand and control is scarcity. Health economics is perhaps even more dismal, dealing as it does with both scarcity and human suffering. This chapter considers some key concepts in health economics, indeed, in the discipline of economics, and identifies how the application of economic research in the real-world context of health policy raises ethical questions not often considered by researchers. It shows that health economists have particular obligations, first, to be aware of ethical implications which arise from some of the conceptual tools of economics, and second, to ensure that the issues are not misrepresented to, or misunderstood by, policy makers. Complicating health economists' moral responsibility for the application of health economics research to real policy problems is the ethical principle underlying health economics: utilitarianism. When applied to a single individual's treatment, the marginal benefit curve would lead to relatively unproblematic decision-making.
