How can an ethics conference help with decision-making?

Most, if not all, of the decisions we make are based on what we take to be most important in life - our values. Ethics involves a structured process to review what we value most, and to determine whether our actions and decisions are consistent with those values. Applied to the question of health resource allocation, ethics provides us with a tool to use in deciding how best to allocate scarce resources. It does not prescribe particular answers or advocate for any position. Instead, it provides a framework to use for decision-makers seeking greater transparency, consistency, and fairness. Though ethical reflection and analysis will never result in perfect choices, it places a premium on making thoughtful and informed ones.

This conference merely provides an opportunity to engage in this kind of reflection in a structured way, under the guidance of individuals who think about and work with these issues on a daily basis. It also provides an opportunity to explictly address the difficult ethical dimensions of those choices with colleagues - an opportunity that rarely presents itself in the fast-paced and demanding world of modern health systems.

To this end, the conference has been developed not only as a traditional formal learning opportunity, but also as a momentary retreat from the pressures of administration and governance. Its purpose is to provide space for moral reflection.

Objectives

This conference will aim to:

• clearly articulate the ethical dimensions of health care resource allocation decision making
• provide the moral and emotional space to explore these ethical dimensions
• provide decision makers with practical tools to help make these complex decisions in a systematic and organized way
• provide the opportunity to use these tools and to build ethical decision-making skills under the facilitation of prominent North American Bioethicists

Learnings

It is our hope that participants will leave this conference with:

• a deeper understanding of what ethics is
• the ability to articulate the ethical dimensions of resource allocation decision making
• tools to make resource allocation decisions based on a moral foundation that is developed in a systematic and organized manner and yet sensitive to local political realities
• the desire and the means to share these learnings with others
• awareness of resources that are available to assist groups in thinking about resource allocation decision-making from an ethics-perspective