Justice between Age Groups: Am I My Parents' Keeper?

There is a growing perception that age groups are competing for scarce medical and other resources. Yet, there has been little discussion of the central issue for any distributive system: Is rationing by age a morally acceptable public policy? In some rationing schemes appeal is made to an age criterion that works differently from appeals to race or sex criteria, for it operates within a life and not between lives. Our problem is to develop ways to convert individual prudent preferences into relevant and prudent social institutions.

Author(s): Norman Daniels

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Volume 61, Issue 3 (pages 489–522)
Published in 1983