Global Health Ethics
                     GLOBAL HEALTH ETHICS
Introduction
• Global health ethics is a relatively new term used 
to conceptualize the process of applying moral 
value to health issues that are usually 
characterized by a global level effect or require 
action coordinated at a global level. 
Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
What is health ethics?
• Health ethics has a  broad focus, taking in ethical 
issues faced by health professionals, health 
policy-makers and health researchers, as well as 
by patients, families, and communities in a  range 
of contexts related to health, including clinical 
care, health services and systems, public health 
etc.
Source: www.who.int
Geographic approach
• It is important to note that this account of global 
health ethics takes a predominantly geographic 
approach, which infers that global health ethics 
relates primarily to large-scale, or macro, health 
phenomena.
Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Complex Process
• The endeavor to develop a robust ethical 
framework to apply to issues of global health has 
been a long and complex process. 
• Recently, ‘international health’ and ‘international 
justice’ led the discourse through discussions of 
international ethics and global health justice
Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Equity and justice in health
•  It can be agreed that health has special moral 
importance; therefore, health inequalities are 
also morally significant.
• Health justice is principally concerned with 
reducing unfair and avoidable health inequalities 
rather than eliminating differences in health 
states altogether.
Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Ethical conflicts
• The most typical public health ethical conflict is in 
deciding upon how to balance the needs of ‘the 
many’ against the rights of ‘the individual’. 
Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Difference between ethical,
social and personal values in health
• Values describe what is important to an 
individual, a group, or a society.
•  Moreover, different societies may have different 
values and practices. Most people would agree 
that tolerance of such differences is important, 
and we must, generally, respect values that differ 
from our own.
Source: www.who.int
Relationship between
health ethics and the law
• Both ethics and law are normative frameworks, 
i.e. they define how people ought to act. Ethics 
and law are often complementary.
Source: www.who.int
 Relationship between
health ethics and human rights
• Human rights encompass what are known as civil, 
cultural, economic, political and social rights. 
Governments have an affirmative obligation to 
respect, protect, and fulfil human rights.
• It might be argued that there are human rights 
that people should have that have not yet been 
enshrined in legally binding human rights 
instrument.
Source: www.who.int
Key ethical issues in public health
• Both public health practice and policy raise 
diverse ethical considerations. An important set 
of issues concerns the relationship between the 
liberty of the individual and broader societal 
concerns.
• Other important issues include such things as 
equity, solidarity, social justice, reciprocity, and 
trust.
Source: www.who.int