Examine the ethical concerns related to population health.

• Choose a major ethical issue in global health and provide an analysis of the issue.
• Why is the issue an ethical issue?
• What steps can you propose for avoiding or resolving the issue?

Answer:

Global population has been suffering from increasing ethical issues in health care, health promotion and biomedical research since time immemorial. Among various ethical issues in global scenario, social justice is a major ethical issue which is considered central to global health. Social justice is prevalent in terms of racism, ageism, health disparity, religious and nationality discrimination among the population. Good health promotion is important and ethically concerned globally. Denizens in remote parts are deprived of proper medical care and treatment. United States witnesses major health inequities among African Americans who are the most compromised on racial, social and ethnical discrimination. Ethnical and racial discrimination has deprived African Americans from accessing required medical assistance; this resulted in increased mortality among women as well as infant population. Recent data has revealed high risk of morbidity for African Americans in cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer (Noonan, Velasco-Mondragon & Wagner, 2016).

A myriad of underlying factors are responsible for this increased ethical issues of social justice. Poverty, malnutrition, lack of education, unhealthy living conditions, lack of transportation services, insecurity, employment biases, cultural competence issues and lack of accessibility to health resources are prime determinants of this ethical issue (Gostin & Sridhar, 2014). Health disparity in providing quality care augments the social injustice.

Systemic measures would be proposed to address the challenges of social injustice. Social reforms and programs, monetary investments, awareness campaigns on unbiased approaches would improve the ethical situation. Efforts should be given to educate the justice administrators on unbiased health service provisions; nutrition and poverty improvement should be focused to disease mortality and morbidity. Focusing on health risks would not nullify the social injustice; the underlying factors of social disparity should be addressed through strict implementation of justice laws, which would positively impact the population in terms of global health provision.

References:

Gostin, L. O., & Sridhar, D. (2014). Global health and the law. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(18), 1732-1740.

Noonan, A. S., Velasco-Mondragon, H. E., & Wagner, F. A. (2016). Improving the health of African Americans in the USA: an overdue opportunity for social justice. Public health reviews, 37(1), 12.