Marketisation, Ethics and Healthcare ─ Policy, Practice and Moral Formation

How does the market in its various forms affect and redefine healthcare ethics? The marketisation of Western healthcare systems has now proceeded well into its fourth decade, yet the distinction between what is a market and what is not a market has become increasingly opaque amidst changing discourses, policies and institutional structures. Furthermore ethics as a discipline dealing with individual, clinical decisions appears to have become separated from political economy. This volume explores how ‘the market’, in its various guises, continues to affect and redefine health professionals and impact on the care they provide.

The first part introduces the market, exploring what it means, and its ethical implications. The second part looks at how marketisation shapes healthcare and considers the possibility of reconciling market forces and the covenant underlying the public healthcare system. The final part problematises the place of ethics in a marketised system. By reflecting on the meaning of the market and the medical profession, this ground-breaking volume identifies a variety of ways to help preserve healthcare workers’ integrity and ensure compassionate care.

Promoting a richer public reflection on the moral implications of a marketised healthcare system, this book is suitable for academics and students interested in the health sciences, medical ethics and law, social and public policy, philosophy and theology.

Therese Feiler is a postdoctoral researcher at the Healthcare Values Partnership, University of Oxford, UK

Andrew Papanikitas is NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in General Practice at the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, UK.

Joshua Hordern is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, UK.