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Chapter 6 - Is There a Need for Global Health Ethics?

For and Against

from Section 2 - Global Health Ethics, Responsibilities, and Justice: Some Central Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2021

By
David Hunter  and
Angus J. Dawson
Edited by
Solomon Benatar  and
Gillian Brock
Solomon Benatar
Affiliation:
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Cape Town
Gillian Brock
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, University of Auckland
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Summary

To provide an answer to the question of whether we need global health ethics, we set ourselves three goals in this chapter. First, we explore a number of different ways that we might understand the term global health ethics. Second, we consider the arguments that could be used either to support or dismiss what we call substantive accounts of global health ethics. Finally, we make some suggestions in relation to what (if any) global obligations may bind us. Our discussions will use public health as an example throughout to illustrate our points. The reason for this focus is that, in our view, we ought to think of public health as providing systematic structural support for population health, with the key aim of fulfilling the basic requirements to protect health and prevent illness. This is not to suggest that other forms of healthcare are unimportant, just that public health will fulfill a primary role in any attempt to address questions of global justice in relation to existing health inequalities.

Type
Chapter
Information
Global Health
Ethical Challenges
 , pp. 98 - 109
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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