Ethical Complexities in Systems Healthcare: What Care and for Whom?

Abstract

It is the claim of this book that a move towards Systems and Complexity Sciences in Healthcare will provide a more precise and reliable foundation for patient care. While the extent to which this claim is true may continue to be discussed for years, another consequence of this move is much more certain: that research in complexity and systems biology will bring surprises and challenges to our understanding of health and disease that will in turn raise significant ethical issues for everyone. It is the intent of this chapter to (1) indicate what these surprising ethical challenges will look like, and (2) offer an approach to engaging these ethical challenges in a way that can provide the best opportunity for achieving the desired outcome of improved healthcare for all.