Ethics, health policy-making and the economic crisis: a qualitative interview study with European policy-makers.

The study showed that ethical concepts and values frequently come into play in health policy-making, and that ethics is highly relevant in policy-makers' daily decision-taking, yet that they lack ethical guidance on what to base their decisions. The study is of relevance since it can provide future decisions on austerity-related issues with an ethical underpinning and could identify areas of moral concern.