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Fund my treatment!: A call for ethics-focused social science research into the use of crowdfunding for medical care

Author

Listed:
  • Snyder, Jeremy
  • Mathers, Annalise
  • Crooks, Valorie A.

Abstract

Crowdfunding involves raising money from large groups of individuals, often through the use of websites dedicated to this purpose. Crowdfunding campaigns aimed at raising money to pay for expenses related to receiving medical treatment are receiving increased media attention and there is evidence that medical crowdfunding websites are heavily used. Nonetheless, virtually no scholarly attention has been paid to these medical crowdfunding campaigns and there is no systematic evidence about how widely they are used and for what reasons, and what effects they have on the provision of medical care and individuals' relationships to their health systems. Ethical concerns have been raised in relation to these campaigns, focusing on issues for campaigners and donors such as exposure to fraudulent campaigns, loss of privacy, and fairness in how medical crowdfunding funds are distributed. Medical crowdfunding websites themselves have not been systematically studied, despite their significant influence on how these campaigns are developed and promoted. In this paper, we identify three very broad and pressing ethical questions regarding medical crowdfunding for social scientists to address and offer some preliminary insights into key issues informing future answers to each: Who benefits the most from medical crowdfunding and how does medical crowdfunding affect access to medical care; How does medical crowdfunding affect our understanding of the causes of inadequate access to medical care; and How are campaigner and donor privacy affected by website design? Our observations indicate the need for increased scholarly attention to the ethical and practical effects of medical crowdfunding for campaigners, recipients, donors, and the health system as a whole.

Suggested Citation

  • Snyder, Jeremy & Mathers, Annalise & Crooks, Valorie A., 2016. "Fund my treatment!: A call for ethics-focused social science research into the use of crowdfunding for medical care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 27-30.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:169:y:2016:i:c:p:27-30
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.09.024
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Berliner, Lauren S. & Kenworthy, Nora J., 2017. "Producing a worthy illness: Personal crowdfunding amidst financial crisis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 233-242.
    2. Moysidou, Krystallia & Cohen Chen, Smadar, 2023. "Inducing collective action intentions for healthcare reform through medical crowdfunding framing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    3. Sarah J Pol & Jeremy Snyder & Samantha J Anthony, 2019. ""Tremendous financial burden": Crowdfunding for organ transplantation costs in Canada," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Noelia Salido-Andres & Marta Rey-Garcia & Luis Ignacio Alvarez-Gonzalez & Rodolfo Vazquez-Casielles, 2022. "When the winner takes it all: online campaign factors influencing the success of donation-based crowdfunding for charitable causes," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(4), pages 763-780, December.
    5. Nora Kenworthy & Zhihang Dong & Anne Montgomery & Emily Fuller & Lauren Berliner, 2020. "A cross-sectional study of social inequities in medical crowdfunding campaigns in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Hossain Mokter & Oparaocha Gospel Onyema, 2017. "Crowdfunding: Motives, Definitions, Typology and Ethical Challenges," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 1-14, April.
    7. Rosangela Feola & Massimiliano Vesci & Ezio Marinato & Roberto Parente, 2021. "Segmenting “digital investors”: evidence from the Italian equity crowdfunding market," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1235-1250, February.
    8. Laura Grassi & Simone Fantaccini, 2022. "An overview of Fintech applications to solve the puzzle of health care funding: state-of-the-art in medical crowdfunding," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-27, December.
    9. Edgar Cambaza, 2023. "The Role of FinTech in Sustainable Healthcare Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Narrative Review," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-17, July.
    10. Blake Murdoch & Alessandro R Marcon & Daniel Downie & Timothy Caulfield, 2019. "Media portrayal of illness-related medical crowdfunding: A content analysis of newspaper articles in the United States and Canada," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-12, April.
    11. Renwick, Matthew J. & Mossialos, Elias, 2017. "Crowdfunding our health: Economic risks and benefits," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 48-56.
    12. Gaia Bassani & Nicoletta Marinelli & Silvio Vismara, 2019. "Crowdfunding in healthcare," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 1290-1310, August.
    13. Juliane Proelss & Denis Schweizer & Tingyu Zhou, 2021. "Economics of philanthropy—evidence from health crowdfunding," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 999-1026, August.
    14. Igra, Mark & Kenworthy, Nora & Luchsinger, Cadence & Jung, Jin-Kyu, 2021. "Crowdfunding as a response to COVID-19: Increasing inequities at a time of crisis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    15. Alexa Böckel & Jacob Hörisch & Isabell Tenner, 2021. "A systematic literature review of crowdfunding and sustainability: highlighting what really matters," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(2), pages 433-453, April.
    16. Klein, Nicholas J. & Tran, Minh & Riley, Sarah, 2020. "“Desperately Need a Car”: Analyzing Crowdfunding Campaigns for Car Purchases and Repairs on Gofundme.com," SocArXiv 8x7d2, Center for Open Science.

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