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What Is the Proper Role for Charity in Healthcare?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

Felicia Ackerman
Felicia Ackerman
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. A recipient of an O'Henry award, she has published 11 short stories, many dealing with issues in medical ethics.
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Extract

My little girl has leukemia; she has had it for over a year, and now she needs at least five pints of blood a day. Not the whole blood, just the platelets. Most of our relatives and friends have given at least a few times. But we need more. Now I have to go to strangers.

So begins Roberta Silman's short story, “Giving Blood,” a story about illness and charity. When the narrator's husband solicited blood donations at his workplace, “he thought everyone would help…He must have asked a hundred people. Thirty gave. His officemate…turned green and said, ‘Oh, no, anything but that. I'm scared of needles.'”

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , Summer 1996 , pp. 425 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

Notes

1. Silman, R. Blood Relations. Boston: Little, Brown, 1977:32.Google Scholar

2. See note 1. Silman, . 1977:35.Google Scholar

3. See note 1. Silman, . 1977:43.Google Scholar

4. See note 1. Silman, . 1977:44.Google Scholar

5. See note 1. Silman, . 1977:40.Google Scholar

6. See note 1. Silman, . 1977:35.Google Scholar

7. For more detailed discussion of this point, see Ackerman, F. No, thanks, I don't want to die with dignity. Providence Journal-Bulletin 1990; 05 19;Google Scholar and Ackerman, F. The forecasting game. In: W, Abrahams, Ed. Prize Stories 1990: The O. Henry Awards. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1990:316–35.Google Scholar

8. For a discussion of this case, see Hentoff, N. Saving the most lives for the buck. Village Voice 1988;May 3.Google Scholar

9. Sara Ann Ketchum made this point in discussion.

10. Shapiro, J. Welfare: the myths of charity. U.S. News & World Report 1995; 01 16:39–40.Google Scholar

11. This information was provided by Josè Carmasana of the Department of Patient Services, Massachusetts General Hospital.

12. I owe this suggestion to Donna Harvey.

13. Oregon's original plan for rationing care for Medicaid recipients allowed funding for liver transplants unless the recipient had a history (even a distant history) of alcoholism, but did not call for treating paraplegics differently according to whether their injuries resulted from recreational skiing or from being hit by a car while crossing the street. (However, the Bush administration rejected this plan, citing the Americans With Disabilities Act.) See Shapiro, J. No Pity. New York: Random House, 1993:324–8.Google Scholar

14. See note 1. Silman, . 1977:35.Google Scholar