Philosophizing social justice in rural palliative care: Hayek's moral stone?

Increasingly, palliative care is being referred to as an essential programme and in some cases as a human right. Once it is recognized as such, it becomes part of the lexicon of social justice in that it can be argued that all members of society should have access to such care. However, this begs the question of how that care should be enacted, particularly in rural and remote areas. This question illustrates some of Friedrich Hayek's critiques of social justice. Hayek has likened social justice to a 'moral stone' arguing that social justice is meaningless to the extent that society is impersonal and as such cannot be just, only those individuals who make up that society can be just. When responsibility for justice is assigned to an impersonal society, ideas of social justice can become a clarion call for whom no one is directly accountable. This opens the door for questionable macro-level political agendas that have no capacity to enact the ideal, and worse, may suppress individual moral acts towards the desired end. Further, acts of interference at the macro level with the ideal of equal opportunity run the risk of disadvantaging other members of society. Instead, he has argued that a better approach lies in finding ways to induce and support individual moral acts that promote the human good. Hayek's arguments are particularly compelling for rural palliative care. In this paper we draw upon data from an ethnographic study in rural palliative care to illustrate the potential misfit between the ethical ideal of palliative care as expressed by rural participants and the narratives of social justice.

Successful treatment with low-dose thalidomide in a patient with both Behçet's disease and complex regional pain syndrome type I: case report.

Thalidomide is a recognized treatment of Behçet's disease. Low-dose thalidomide seems to be effective in the treatment of orogenital ulcers and is potentially safer with a lower incidence of adverse effects than higher doses. We wish to report a case of Behçet's disease in a 33-year-old woman who responded well to thalidomide 50 mg 2 to 4 times per week. Her disease manifestations (severe orogenital ulceration, pseudofolliculitis, mild thrombophlebitis, positive pathergy response, and fatigue) were previously resistant to courses of prednisone, dapsone, colchicine, various types of mouthwash, and topical steroid preparations. She also gave a history of complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS 1) over her left patella (severe pain, intermittent edema, hyperalgesia, allodynia, cold skin, and loss of movement) after a fall onto her left knee 6 years previously. This had only partially responded to a variety of treatment modalities. After starting thalidomide for her Behçet's disease, the pain in her left knee unexpectedly disappeared. There are rat experiments showing that thalidomide improves neuropathic pain, probably by selectively blocking tumor necrosis factor-alpha production in activated macrophages. We believe this is the first report of successful use of thalidomide in a human being with CRPS 1, and we therefore recommend that thalidomide should be considered in the treatment of CRPS 1.