Question

Public health practice involves working with issues of illnesses and diseases of populations. Because of this, unique ethical issues are involved. Generally, public health practices and policies try to improve the overall health of the public; this position often conflicts with the principle of autonomy for individuals. This conflict might be clinical, as in the case of immunization, or legal, as in the case of required medical reporting and treatment of communicable diseases. Furthermore, public health involves recognizing health and illness in the wider context of social, environmental, political, and economic factors, while ensuring that the ethical principles are not violated.

Considering this, respond to the following:

• What are the features that distinguish public health ethics from conventional medical ethics or bioethics?
• Are ethical principles and values, or the methods of ethical analysis, materially different when applied to populations rather than to individuals?

Give examples and reasons in support of your responses.

Answer 1

Some of the features that distinguish public health ethics from medical ethics or bioethics are as following

• The principle of fundamentality had to be provided to the community when these types of work is carried out in them
• It is necessary to abide to the principle of community trust and ensure quality care is provided to the population as a whole and they are not harmed.
• The principle of justice has to followed so that any harm to the other or healthy population is prevented from the infected population
• Ensuring interdependence and respecting the population
• Following collective concepts

The method of ethical analysis is different when it comes to population rather than individual .For example if an individual is ordered for a treatment or immunization.Here the concerned individual can either accept or refuse the treatment on the grounds of autonomy and values of them but this is not the scenario when it comes to population as whole or group where decision making is not done by the population rather the researcher or the government.