(dis-trib'yŭ-tiv )

The ethical concept that favors the value of doing some good for a community, as opposed to doing great good for an individual. It may be illustrated by the dilemma of providing a costly organ transplant to save the life of one person versus providing vaccination against polio to thousand s of others. When monetary resources are limited, health care planners, providers, and patients compete for those resources and must decide whether to concentrate them on a single major task or distribute them broadly to the population at large.