Values Based Health Care: The Fundamentals of Ethical Decision-Making

We have lost the balance between evidence and values. Technical aspects of decision--making dominate every social sphere: health professionals rely on formulae to decide who to treat, educators are funded according to outputs, businesses employ statisticians to tell them how much they need to spend on safety, while governments use algorithms to work out whether to go to war. Human values lay behind absolutely everything we do, and yet we treat them as if they don't matter. In this highly original and readable book, David Seedhouse describes the history of the evidence--values gap and illuminates the fundamental importance of values in human problem--solving. He advocates values--based decision--making as a much--needed means of restoring balance to social planning, and explains how information technology can be used to turn values into evidence. The potential of values--based decision--making is huge and exciting. The final chapter of this seminal work points the way to a democratic future in which everyone's values can be seen and heard, regardless of technical knowledge or social status. Values--Based Decision--Making using examples drawn primarily from the health field, will be of considerable interest to all health professionals. However, because its reach extends into all arenas of human decision--making, everyone who makes plans on behalf of other people should read the book.