Medical Resource Allocation as a Function of Selected Patient Characteristics

This study assessed how changes in the characteristics of parental status, intelligence level, and mental health of hypothetical patients suffering from a kidney disease altered participants' decisions about allocating access to a life-supporting artificial-kidney machine. Participants were given a list of hypothetical prospective patients who were described as having a kidney disease, yet varied with respect to the three aforementioned characteristics. Participants rank-ordered patients on the basis of priority for treatment. Participants clearly favored hypothetical patients who (a) had children, (b) were of high intelligence, and (c) were mentally healthy.