Introduction

Author(s):  
Patricia Illingworth ◽  
Wendy E. Parmet

The 2015 Ebola epidemic, as well as the global migration crisis, bring to light the connection many people make between loathsome disease and strangers. Myths about newcomers and disease have long informed both immigration policy and health policy. This book focuses on the latter and reviews basic demographics about migrants and their health, dispelling the myths that have thus far informed health policy. The book argues that health should be understood as a global public good and that understanding it as such has important moral and practical implications that ought to be taken into account as health policy is developed. This introduction provides a chapter-by-chapter outline of the book.

Author(s):  
Patricia Illingworth ◽  
Wendy E. Parmet

Contrary to the standard view that health is a private good, health should be viewed as a public good: its benefits are nonexcludable and nonrivalrous. Health should, in fact, be understood as a global public good, in light of globalization. Chapter 6 illustrates this analysis with reference to the global eradication of smallpox. Understanding health as a global public good, rather than as a private good, has implications for a nation’s moral obligations to newcomers and the health policy that its government crafts: one person’s health can adversely affect another’s health, and good health can benefit many. Given the public good dimensions of health, failure to help newcomers in need of care may not only be counterproductive because it puts the health of all at risk, it may also violate basic principles of fairness, reciprocity and justice.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Prah Ruger

The global health governance (GHG) literature frames health variously as a matter of security and foreign policy, human rights, or global public good. Divergence among these perspectives has forestalled the development of a consensus vision for global health. Global health policy will differ according to the frame applied. Fundamentally, GHG today operates on a rational actor model, encompassing a continuum from the purely self-interest-maximizing position at one extreme to a more nuanced approach that takes others’ interests into account when making one’s own calculations. Even where humanitarian concerns are clearly and admirably at play, however, the problem of motivations remains. Often narrow self-interest is also at work, and actors obfuscate this behind altruistic motives.


2021 ◽  
pp. 209660832110096
Author(s):  
Daya Reddy

This work addresses the issue of scientific literacy and its connection to the responsibility of scientists in relation to public engagement. The points of departure are, first, the notion of science as a global public good, and, second, developments in the past few decades driven largely by the digital revolution. The latter lend a particular urgency to initiatives aimed at promoting scientific literacy. Arguments are presented for reassessing approaches to public communication. The particular example of genome editing is provided as a vehicle for highlighting the challenges in engagement involving the scientific community, policymakers and broader society.


1995 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 651
Author(s):  
Yossi Shain ◽  
Myron Weiner

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-61
Author(s):  
Artur Gruszczak

This article aims to make an insight into the conditions of immigration policy and actions undertaken by the Swedish authorities and political parties in the face of the migration crisis in Europe after 2015. A hypothesis presented here assumes that a decisive evolution of the attitudes of the Swedish authorities, political parties, and society towards a restrictive approach to immigration arose from the awareness of the negative consequences of migration management for the Swedish socio-economic model and the political scene. The theoretical framework used in this article is the concept of policy responsiveness, including the ability of political authorities to respond effectively and lawfully to the needs and expectations of the citizens. Process tracing was applied as a research method useful for following the transformation process of Sweden’s immigration policy. Statistical data, documents issued by the government and political parties, as well as the subject literature were the sources utilised in the research. Conclusions drawn from the research point to the tightening of immigration policy as a result of the fear of a prolonged pull effect on foreigners and concern surrounding the appropriate handling of immigration in full accordance with the adopted model of immigration policy.


Author(s):  
Stephen M. Gardiner

Ethics is highly relevant to grand technological interventions into basic planetary systems on a global scale (roughly, “geoengineering”). Focusing on climate engineering, this chapter identifies a large number of salient concerns (e.g., welfare, rights, justice, political legitimacy) but argues that early policy framings (e.g., emergency, global public good) often marginalize these and so avoid important questions of justification. It also suggests that, since it is widely held that geoengineering has become a serious option mainly because of political inertia, there are important contextual issues, especially around the paradoxical question, “What should we do, ethically speaking, given that we have not done, and will continue not to do, what we should be doing?” Taking such issues seriously helps to explain why some regard geoengineering as ethically troubling and highlights the largely neglected threat of interventions that discriminate against future generations (“parochial geoengineering”). We should take seriously the risk that, far from being simply a welcome new tool for climate action, geoengineering may become yet another manifestation of the underlying problem.


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