Philosopher Philip Reed, PhD, has identified and defined a previously unnamed form of discrimination in healthcare and society: "terminalism" - the systematic discrimination against people who are dying. His research in the Journal of Medical Ethics examines how terminally ill patients face routine discrimination that would be considered unacceptable if applied to any other demographic group.
Key Findings:
• Terminally ill patients are often denied necessary medical care based purely on cost considerations
• Healthcare allocation protocols systematically deprioritize dying patients
• "Right to try" laws paradoxically restrict experimental treatment access until conventional options have failed
• 78% of American hospices turn away patients requiring high-cost care
Expertise:
• Ethical implications of current hospice care policies
• Manifestations of "terminalism" in healthcare systems
• Recommendations for policy reform
• The intersection of medical ethics and human rights
Philip Reed started teaching at Canisius in 2009. His primary areas of specialization are ethics and moral psychology. He also has interests in political philosophy, logic, the history of philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and the built environment. Professor Reed co-directs the Ethics and Justice minors and directs the Conversations in Christ and Culture lecture series at Canisius. He is a fellow at the University of Buffalo’s Romanell Center for Clinical Ethics and the Philosophy of Medicine.
In hospice care and hospitals, we prioritize those with more life to live over those who are terminally ill. What is that, if not prejudice?
So often people claim ‘I didn’t mean to’, yet they fail to realise that plagiarism is more like speeding than theft