Table 1.

A summary of justice schools/ethical theories

Justice School/Ethical Theory	Description
Subjective Utilitarianism	This orientation compares and evaluates policies based on their total desirability level for all members of society. Accordingly, the cost-benefit analysis (e.g., willingness to pay) is applied to determine the actions with the highest desirability level. The followers of this school are highly optimistic about personal choices and the compliance of social policies with public demands and decisions.
Objective Utilitarianism	According to this orientation, the decisions to improve public health should be taken objectively by a group of specialists. Proponents of objective utilitarianism call for policies that bring the highest collective level of enjoyment of health services. They employ cost- effectiveness analysis, e.g., DALYs, QALYs, and non-comprehensive measures such as infant mortality rate (IMR) and survival rate as a result of interventions to investigate the options.
Libertarianism	Supporters of this orientation believe that only ‘negative’ rights need protection. These rights guarantee individual freedom so people can do what they want and others are not entitled to violate their choices. Proponents of libertarianism emphasize the role of a limited government in protecting property rights and individual freedoms. Some of them seriously oppose taxation for resource redistribution (they sometimes accept limited taxation for the provision of basic government services such as defense and security issues).
Egalitarian Liberalism	Egalitarians believe that individual freedom and human dignity cannot be realized without basic resources and facilities. Therefore, everyone has a positive right to enjoy a minimum level of services and resources needed to ensure relative equality of opportunities, freedom, basic needs and demands, and access to basic amenities. These points inevitably refer to the issue of “redistribution”, which is to the benefit of people who are deprived of even the lowest level of welfare. Proponents of this school state that the government should be responsible for providing the minimum quality and quantity of living and health-care services for all people.
Universalist Communitarianism	Universalist communitarians argue that there is a unique universal model for having good individuals and a good society. Religious and non-religious examples such as monotheistic religions and the feminist movement can be classified to, at least partly, correspond with this school.
Relativist Communitarianism	Relativist communitarianism identifies a wide range of cultural behaviors around the World and the extent to which people are influenced by these cultures. Followers of this view believe that any society should determine its norms and methods of social organization. This group views ethics as an inherently contextual issue and does not believe in a global position outside a society to judge cultural traditions.