The individual and the collective in health care: a problem of systems ethics.

Abstract

Our society seems to be characterized by certain imbalances between the individual and the collective, between people and the organizational-technical systems they manage. In the health care sector this is reflected for example in the pressing problems concerning the control of costs. To clarify these imbalances they are placed in a broader framework, namely, that of the changing nature of our technical-industrial societies. The role of systems ethics in solving them is explored.