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Medical Altruism in Mainstream Health Economics: Theoretical and Political Paradoxes

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  • Philippe Batifoulier
  • Nicolas Da Silva
Abstract
In the field of healthcare, ethical considerations are omnipresent. The problem is that it is not clear how to introduce professional ethics within the frontiers demarcated by economic rationality. In mainstream economics, medical altruism is defined as the inclusion of the patient's welfare in the doctor's utility function. This definition presents two serious problems that we develop in this paper. The first problem is that mainstream theory does not propose a model of authentic altruism because it reduces otherness to a source of utility like any other. The second problem is that ethical and altruistic (instrumental or otherwise) behaviour should not be conflated. By reducing ethics to altruism, mainstream theory prevents any genuine discussion of medical ethics. Then, the thesis of the paper is that the attempt to introduce altruism into the standard framework creates theoretical paradoxes that create policy dilemmas.

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  • Philippe Batifoulier & Nicolas Da Silva, 2014. "Medical Altruism in Mainstream Health Economics: Theoretical and Political Paradoxes," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(3), pages 261-279, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:72:y:2014:i:3:p:261-279
    DOI: 10.1080/00346764.2014.927727
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas da Silva, 2021. "The Industrialization of "Liberal Medicine" in France. A Labor Quality Conventions Approach," Post-Print hal-03185634, HAL.
    2. Florence JANY-CATRICE, 2020. "Une économie politique des mesures d’impact social," CIRIEC Working Papers 2014, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    3. Philippe Batifoulier & Nicolas da Silva & Victor Duchesne, 2019. "The dynamics of conventions: the case of the French Social Security System," Post-Print hal-01994383, HAL.
    4. Florence Jany‐Catrice, 2022. "A political economy of social impact measurement," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(2), pages 267-291, June.
    5. Philippe Batifoulier & Rainer Diaz-Bone, 2022. "Perspectives on the economics and sociology of health. Contributions from the institutionalist approach of economics of convention -an introduction," Working Papers hal-03584852, HAL.
    6. Philippe Batifoulier & Bruno Boidin & Jean-Paul Domin & Amandine Rauly, 2021. "La théorie économique à l’épreuve de la covid-19. Une lecture d’économie politique de la santé [Economic theory and covid-19. A reading by the political economy of health]," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 29.
    7. repec:hal:cepnwp:hal-03584852 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Philippe Batifoulier & Nicolas Da Silva, 2016. "Is physician behavior too serious a business to be left to economics? Reply to medical altruism in mainstream health economics: theoretical and political paradoxes," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(2), pages 222-227, June.

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