How Should We Decide Which Ethical Preferences to Include in The Economic Analyses of The Health Sector

It is argued that orthodox economics has failed to acknowledge the extent to which ethical judgments permeate evaluation and policy advice. It has likewise failed to make explicit and debate the prior issue of how we should approach the task of evaluating ethical theories - that is, the ethical assumptions which underpin policy advice. Three such approaches are discussed. These are: (i) the approach implied in economic theory (`Platonic orthodoxy'); (ii) the approval adopted by the ethics profession (`Ethics') and (iii) an approach labelled `Empirical Ethics'. It is concluded that the latter is the most secure and rewarding basis for theory and policy. The argument draws upon several empirical studies which are summarised.