Abstract
The problems of allocation of scarce resources and priority setting in health care have so far not been much studied in the context of stem cell-based therapeutic applications. If and when competitive cost-effective stem cell-based therapies are available, the problem of priority setting - to whom should stem cell-based therapies be offered and on what grounds - is discussed in this article using the examples of Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Huntington's Disease (HD). The aim of this paper is to examine the presently known differences between PD and HD and analyze the role of these differences for setting priorities of stem cell-based therapeutic applications to treat these diseases. To achieve this aim, we (1) present the theoretical framework used in the analysis; (2) compare PD and HD in terms of health related and non-health related consequences of these diseases for patients, their relatives and third parties; (3) analyze the ethical relevance of observed differences for priority setting given different values and variables; (4) compare PD and HD in terms of social justice related consequences of stem cell-based therapies; and (5) analyze the ethical relevance of these differences for priority setting given different values and variables. We argue that the steps of analysis applied in this paper could be helpful when setting priorities among treatments of other diseases with similar differences as those between PD and HD.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 777-791 |
Journal | Current Molecular Medicine |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Subject classification (UKÄ)
- Cell and Molecular Biology
Free keywords
- Differences
- ethical theories
- Huntington's disease
- Parkinson's
- disease
- priority setting
- stem cell-based therapies
- values