The<unk>  is the study of the ethics, processes, and people which constitute the maintenance of health for human beings. (Although veterinary concerns are worthy to note, the body of thought regarding their methodologies and practices is not addressed in this article.) For the most part, however, the<unk>  is best approached as an indelible component of human social structures. That is, the societal institution of<unk>  can be seen as a necessary phenomenon of human civilization whereby an individual continually seeks to improve, mend, and alter the overall nature and quality of their life. This perennial concern is especially prominent in modern political liberalism, wherein health has been understood as the foundational good necessary for public life. The<unk>  is primarily concerned with the following elemental questions: *Who requires and/or deserves<unk> ? Is<unk>  a fundamental right of all people? *What should be the basis for calculating the cost of treatments, hospital stays, drugs, etc.? *How can<unk>  best be administered to the greatest number of people? *What are the necessary parameters for clinical trials and quality assurance? *Who, if anybody, can decide when a patient is in need of "comfort measures" (allowing a natural death by providing medications to treat symptoms related to the patient's illness)? However, the most important question of all is 'what is health?'. Unless this question is addressed any debate about<unk>  will be vague and unbounded. For example, what exactly is a<unk>  intervention? What differentiates<unk>  from engineering or teaching, for example? Is<unk>  about 'creating autonomy' or acting in people's best interests? Or is it always both? A<unk> ' of anything requires baseline<unk> cal questions, as asked, for example, by<unk> r David Seedhouse. Ultimately, the purpose, objective and meaning of<unk> <unk>  is to consolidate the abundance of information regarding the ever-changing fields of biotechnology, medicine, and nursing. And seeing that<unk>  typically ranks as one of the largest spending areas of governmental budgets, it becomes important to gain a greater understanding of<unk>  as not only a social institution, but also as a political one. In addition,<unk> <unk>  attempts to highlight the primary movers of<unk>  systems; be it nurses, doctors, allied health professionals, hospital administrators, health insurance companies (HMOs and PPOs), the government (Medicare and Medicaid), and lastly, the patients themselves. President Johnson signing the U.S. Medicare bill. Harry Truman and his wife, Bess, are on the far right. (1965)
Philosophy of healthcare
Social narrative
Terminology of alternative medicine
Bobath concept
Transgender health care
Respect for persons
Culture of violence theory
Personal narrative