Public Health, Ethics, and Equity
“….In the last fifty years, average overall health status has increased more or less in parallel with a much celebrated decline in mortality, attributed mostly to poverty reduction, sanitation, nutrition, housing, immunization, and improved medical care. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that these achievements were not equally distributed. In most countries, while some social groups have benefited significantly, the situation of others has stagnated or may even have worsened.
Health is a prerequisite to a person functioning as an agent. Inequalities in health constitute inequalities in people's capability to function -- a denial of equality of opportunity. So why should a concern with health equity be singled out from the pursuit of social justice more generally? Can existing theories of justice provide an adequate account of health equity? And what ethical problems arise in evaluating health inequalities? These are some of the important questions that this book addresses in building an interdisciplinary understanding of health equity.
With contributions from distinguished philosophers, anthropologists, economists, and public-health specialists, it centres on five major themes: what is health equity?; health equity and social justice; responsibilities for health; ethical issues in health evaluation; and anthropological perspectives…..”
Publisher's website: http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-927636-6
Introduction: PDF file [12p.] at:: http://www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-927636-6.pdf
Content:
Preface ,
Introduction ,
I. Health Equity
1. The Concern for Equity in Health ,
2. Why Health Equity? ,
II. Health, Society, and Justice
3. Social Causes of Social Inequalities in Health ,
4. Why Justice is Good for Our Health: The Social Determinants of Health Inequalities ,
5. Health Equity and Social Justice ,
III. Responsibility for Health and Health Care
6. Justice, Socioeconomic Status, and Responsibility for Health ,
7. Relational Conceptions of Justice: Responsibilities for Health Outcomes ,
8. Just Health Care in a Plurinational Country ,
IV. Ethical and Measurement Problems in Health Evaluation
9. Disability-adjusted Life Years: A Critical Review ,
10. Ethical Issues in the Use of Cost Effectiveness Analysis for the Prioritization of Health Care Resources ,
11. Deciding Whom to Help, Health-Adjusted Life Years, and Disabilities ,
12. The Value of Living Longer ,
V. Equity and Conflicting Perspectives on Health Evaluation
13. Health Achievement and Equity: External and Internal Perspectives ,
14. Ethics and Experience: An Anthropological Approach to Health Equity ,
15. Equity of the Ineffable: Cultural and Political Constraints on Ethnomedicine as a Health Problem in Contemporary , Readership: Researchers and teachers in public health, philosophy, public policy, and health economics; public health analysts and national and international health policy makers.
Source: http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199276363