The Rule of Rescue

I ' m going to do a series on some of the fundamentals of public health. I ' ll start with a concept called the Rule of Rescue, a term coined by bioethicist Albert R. Jonsen in 1986.[i]When a child falls down a well, and the rescue is difficult, the attention of the entire country may focus on a remote small town until the drama is resolved. But children in low income countries die of preventable causes every five minutes, and few Americans seem to care. You might chalk this up to racism, and you ’d be partly right, but white American children also die of preventable causes every day, and it gets little attention.The Rule of Rescue applies when a specific, identifiable individual is in mortal danger. People instinctively feel that everything possible should be done to save that person, without regard to cost or even, to some degree, immediate peril to others. This instinct is usually fairly egalitarian. It applies to old as well as young, and with little regard to people ’s station in life or perceived worthiness, so long as the individual is within the category that is attributed human rights. (Of course, historically some groups of people have not ascribed humanity to some others, but that’s another matter.)It might cost tens of thousands, or a hundred thousand dollars, to save little Molly from the well. It doesn ’t matter. Anyone who tried to say it wasn’t worth it would be regarded as depraved. But that money could be invested in ways that would save dozens of ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs