Abstract:
Health Care at population level is a complex problem. Having this in mind, the
purpose of this paper is to focus on the goods that are ethically relevant in the process of
caring for health at this level. We briefly analyze some of the Chilean health statistics
that, although they show important improvements along the years, demonstrate that
certain conditions are to be deemed as inadequate by both healthcare providers and
patients. Ethics is a central component to determine how to structure and organize
health care systems and how they should operate. We emphasize Human Dignity as
an ethical cornerstone of the Health Care System, along with other important values
such as Justice and Humanization, under the scope of the Ends of Medicine, and other
components such as technical competence of providers and the financing of the whole
process. We conclude that as far as a health care system is organized in a way that
medical practice is well ordered, primarily and fundamentally according the Ends
of Medicine and the good of persons, such a health care system is ethically adequate.
