A survey that found that 77% of German doctors who work in intensive care or cardiology have withheld treatment from a non-private patient at least once in the previous six months has reignited the debate about healthcare rationing in Germany.

The study, by ethicists from the Universities of Tübingen, Hannover, and Berlin, was published in a recent issue of the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift (2009;134:1261-6, doi:10.1055/s-0029-1225273).

In May the call by Jörg-Dietrich Hoppe, president of the …