Hippocratic Utility

TL;DR

The paper discusses a utility function that prioritizes lives saved by avoiding harmful treatments over those saved by treatment, highlighting its ethical basis and limited applicability.

Contribution

It critically examines the scope and limitations of a specific utility function used in ethical decision-making in healthcare.

Findings

Highlights ethical motivation behind the utility function

Illustrates limitations in applicability of the decision criterion

Questions the universal use of the utility function in practice

Abstract

A utility function has been proposed that values more those lives that are saved by not imposing a harmful treatment and values less those lives that could be saved by treating people who would otherwise die. I do not dispute the ethical motivation behind this kind of asymmetry. However, as my example illustrates, the scope of applicability of such a decision criterion may be limited.