Aging Populations and Public Health Ethics

Author(s):  
Lois Shepherd

This chapter examines three primary public health goals relating to elderly populations: promoting healthy aging (including aging in place), reducing health inequities, and extending life spans. It then considers the ways in which programs or policies to advance population-wide goals are challenged to meet ethical responsibilities to protect older adults from harm, respect their autonomy and dignity, and treat them fairly or justly when resources are limited. Lastly, by looking at a difficult situation commonly faced in hospitals—the discharge of an elderly patient who may not be able to safely return home—the chapter introduces questions about the relationship between public health ethics, clinical ethics, and social justice, and about the future role of public health as a field of inquiry and action.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Chad Horne

Abstract This discussion revises and extends Jonny Anomaly's ‘public goods’ account of public health ethics in light of recent criticism from Richard Dees. Public goods are goods that are both non-rival and non-excludable. What is significant about such goods is that they are not always provided efficiently by the market. Indeed, the state can sometimes realize efficiency gains either by supplying such goods directly or by compelling private purchase. But public goods are not the only goods that the market may fail to provide efficiently. This point to a way of broadening the public goods account of public health to accommodate Dees' counterexamples, without abandoning its distinctive appeal. On the market failures approach to public health ethics, the role of public health is to correct public health-related market failures of all kinds, so far as possible. The underlying moral commitment is to economic efficiency in the sense of Pareto: if we can re-allocate resources in the economy so as to raise the welfare of some without lowering the welfare of any other, we ought to do so.


2021 ◽  
pp. 44-65
Author(s):  
Bruce Jennings

This chapter offers an account of individual rights and agency, and it considers both the liberal dimension and the communitarian dimension of public health ethics. It examines the relationship between social justice and social epidemiology and offers a particular interpretation of social justice as being crucially informed by a relational ethics of mutuality and solidarity. It provides a study premised on the hypothesis that relational theorizing and conceptualization developed in ecological epidemiology has its analogue in ethics. The chapter discusses how relational theorizing in both ethics and epidemiology can provide a promising pathway to a critical public health ethics. It considers the philosophy of epidemiology and the constitutive concepts guiding relational or social theorizing in the field.


1969 ◽  
pp. 511
Author(s):  
Mireille Lacroix

The federal government of Canada has recently undertaken to modernize its public health infrastructure, including setting up the Public Health Agency of Canada (Agency). The structure and organizational features of this Agency are still being determined, however. After a brief discussion of public health ethics, this article examines Quebec's Comité d'éthique de santé publique (CESP) in detail and proposes the CESP as a model for the new federal Agency. The author explores the role of the CESP in public health activities and programs. She discusses the membership and transparency of the CESP and also critiques its circumscribed mandate, with the view of examining whether Quebec's CESP could serve as a model for the newer federal Agency.


1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Abu Sadat Mohammad Nurunnabi ◽  
Mahmood Uz Jahan ◽  
Shaorin Tanira

Public health is the societal approach to protecting and promoting health. Public health ethics can be defined as the identification, analysis, and resolution of ethical problems arising in public health practice and research. The emerging interest in ethical issues in public health research and practice reflects both the important societal role of public health and the growing public interest in the scientific integrity of health information and the equitable distribution of health care resources. This article provides an overview of ethical issues in public health research for young researchers and readers who do not necessarily have an in-depth knowledge of public health ethics. A framework of ethics analysis geared specifically for public health is needed to provide practical guidance for public health professionals and researchers in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Medical Research Council is playing a role in setting a standard in the field of biomedical research including public health concerning its strategy and ethical issues and by helping different health institutes to build up a research environment. Though public policy is based on many factors in addition to public health goals and ethical reasoning, it should not lead to the politically preferable option for a given time. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bioethics.v1i3.9630 Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 2010; 1(3): 15-21


Author(s):  
David B. Resnik

This chapter provides an overview of the ethics of environmental health, and it introduces five chapters in the related section of The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics. A wide range of ethical issues arises in managing the relationship between human health and the environment, including regulation of toxic substances, air and water pollution, waste management, agriculture, the built environment, occupational health, energy production and use, environmental justice, population control, and climate change. The values at stake in environmental health ethics include those usually mentioned in ethical debates in biomedicine and public health, such as autonomy, social utility, and justice, as well as values that address environmental concerns, such as animal welfare, stewardship of biological resources, and sustainability. Environmental health ethics, therefore, stands at the crossroads of several disciplines, including public health ethics, environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, and business ethics.


Author(s):  
Adnan A. Hyder

This chapter briefly introduces ethics issues in injury prevention and control in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), using a series of examples that prompt attention to the ethical principles of autonomy and justice. The chapter also introduces the section of The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics dedicated to an examination of injury and public health ethics, with attention given to the complex ethical challenges arising in injury prevention and control in LMICs. The section’s two chapters discuss public health ethics issues arising in the prevention and control of unintentional injuries and intentional injuries, respectively. Those chapters define a set of ethics issues within international injury work and provide an initial analysis of the nature of those ethics issues, their specificity, and potential pathways for addressing them.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Buron Pust ◽  
A Segura

Abstract Background Public Health Ethics (PHE) has been taught first as optional and later as a mandatory subject in the Master of Public Health in Barcelona for about 6 years. During these years, professors have adapted the methodology to make it more attractive and to maximize students' participation and time spent debating and practicing moral reasoning. Objectives To showcase 3 different teaching strategies or methods, presenting for each of them: resources required, outcomes so far in terms of satisfaction and exam performance, as well as the pros and cons from the teacher's perspective. Results Flipped-classroom strategy: theoretical content is delivered outside the classroom, and the practice into the classroom. Works well but needs incentives for compliance in reading. Versatile debating Methods: from parliamentary debate, to role-playing, online debate, etc. Depending on the Case-study, some work better than others; in the online they practice written deliberation skills, but it is important to set rules. MOOC: Massive Online Open Courses in PHE. Can be used as independent teaching material, it is a great tool to introduce PHE into other PH areas and non-teaching environments. Conclusions So far, these methods have proven to increase students' motivation and engagement in Public Health Ethics. Key messages Practising reflection and debating skills is an essential part of PHE. Modern teaching strategies, more interactive and online-based, can help maximising the time spent in these activities. Although challenging and time-consuming at first, these methods also increase students' interest in PHE.


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