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Chapter 37 - Teaching Global Health Ethics

An Ecological Perspective

from Section 6 - Shaping the Future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2021

By
Sarah Elton  and
Donald C. Cole
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

It’s not easy to talk about global health during the Anthropocene in a university classroom in the Global North. It’s confusing and upsetting to grapple with the data on rising chronic disease rates, the impact of climate change on infectious disease, the effects of toxic exposures from industry globally, and the connection between health and people’s access to land, water, and clean air to breathe. Many of the challenges have been summarized in several Lancet Commission reports (e.g., Whitmee et al., 2015). In class, discussion goes something like this: “Is it really that bad? If it is, there must be someone doing something about it. Technology will save us anyway. Moreover, how do we make sure that everyone has enough food to eat and can live healthy lives if we make changes to the system? What makes us, here in the Global North, more worthy of this good life than those in the Global South, where so many of our families come from and many remain? If we can waste less food, eat less meat, throw away less, recycle more, and find technological fixes, we shall be all right.”

Type
Chapter
Information
Global Health
Ethical Challenges
 , pp. 459 - 469
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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