Ethics of Access:
Vaccines and Insulin
Driving Question:
How do we decide who has access to health care resources in the face of conflicting choices?
How do we decide who has access to health care resources in the face of conflicting choices?
By the end of this lesson, we hope that you have learned:
The field of ethics provides a systematic, rational way to work through a dilemma.
Ethical questions arise when individuals interact within a larger community and a decision must be made about conflicting choices.
Addressing health inequities is a complex process involving many stakeholder groups.
In today’s lesson, we will:
Part A -- Flu Vaccines
1. Make decisions about access to a fictional flu vaccine (15 min)
2. Learn from the experts (10 min)
3. Support or revise your decisions (15 min)
Part B -- Insulin
4. Learn about the role and cost of insulin (25 min)
5. Identify the stakeholders (10 min)
6. Use a decision-making model to make decisions about access to insulin (30 min)
Discussion Norms: Talking about complex issues that people may disagree about may be uncomfortable. It is important to review or create classroom discussion ground rules (norms) before beginning this module. Instructions for doing this can be found here.
Lesson Credits: The Pandemic Flu scenarios, decision-making framework, and supporting documents are from Bioethics 101, from the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research
