| This paper discusses the moral issues involved in the delivery of health care to large numbers of people where resources are limited. Health care for a defined population, the nation, is generally accepted as being the responsibility of the government. When it comes to the actual distribution of limited facilities, however, the moral question of who will be served and who will be deprived of health care is usually left to the physician in charge of the rural health centre. Governments aim at an adequate distribution by enlisting the help of economists, systems analysis, anhd health planners. Such processes may facilitate decision-making but do not eliminate the necessity of deciding on priorities - a moral decision. The author feels that it is here that the churches may be of use; for, being free of the formal responsibility of providing health care, they are unencumbered by the political history and administrative constraints that hamper governments and are thus free to apply their wisdom and human concern to a moral choice of priorities. |