Medical crowdfunding and the virtuous donor.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2019

Identifier

DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12527

Abstract

Patients and families are increasingly turning to crowdfunding to help them cover the cost of medical care. The ethics of crowdfunding has garnered some attention in the bioethical literature. In this paper I examine an ethical aspect of medical crowdfunding (MCF) that has received limited attention: the role of donors. I defend a virtue ethical approach to analyzing the role of donors in MCF. Vicious donation, where donors do not exercise the relevant virtues, can compound some of the ethical risks associated with MCF, as seen in the several recent, high-profile cases. My primary contention in this paper is that encouraging donors to think about how donating to a particular campaign would measure against the virtues I outline could help to discourage acts of ethically problematic donation to MCF campaigns.

Journal Title

Bioethics

Volume

33

Issue

2

First Page

238

Last Page

244

MeSH Keywords

Bioethical Issues; Crowdsourcing; Financing, Organized; Healthcare Financing; Humans; Internet; Morals; Tissue Donors; Virtues

Keywords

distributive justice; donation; medical crowdfunding; role-differentiated ethics; virtue ethics.

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