Public Health Disasters: A Global Ethical Framework by Michael Olusegun Afolabi

Author:Michael Olusegun Afolabi
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783319927657
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

4.2.3 Harm & Social Justice

Harm embeds the process of circumventing the interest of a person or persons. In ethical discourse, harm is often associated with human agency such that while Mr. A could harm Mr. B or a group of persons X, Y, and Z; such capability is not generally ascribed to non-human agents. It is generally believed that there exists a moral duty to behave responsibly and not knowingly put other people at risk. This duty is especially affirmed and applied to people with communicable diseases.147 Therefore, harming a second party constitutes a moral infraction. This idea has a strong tangible and appealing dimension because contracting an infectious disease such as ADR-TB entails the possibility of death to the self, transmitting it and the possibility of killing148 an other or some others.

Generally, ADR-TB imposes devastating human suffering and isolation upon patients , their communities as well as those called upon to help them.149 Hence, it is a source of medical and social harm. Specifically, there are at least three kinds of harm embedded in atypical drug-resistant TB. The first relates to the consequences of health interventions, another is inherent and tied to infected persons while the third is tied to the uncertain and nuanced nature of its biological and social dissemination. These harms may either translate into personal harm (at the individual level where disease progression may or may not lead to death) or social harm (at the communal or global plane where the individual harm logarithmically transmits infection within and across geographic borders). That ADR-TB causes both personal and social harms suggests the inadequacy of the traditional public health approach of seeking to weigh and balance personal interests against societal interests vis-à-vis making public health decisions.

Although public health responsibilities are implemented through policies and programs promulgated by, or with support from, the state.150 Specific government programs that seek to foster collective wellbeing via the restriction of individual liberties such as isolation and mandatory treatment may be interpreted as a form of harm in the Western libertarian tradition. However, within the same ideological niche it is held by many that the avoidance of significant harm from person A to others who are at risk from a serious communicable disease such as tuberculosis outweighs consideration of personal privacy or confidentiality; though overriding this right must be to the minimum extent possible to achieve the desired aim.151 In non-Western obligation-based traditions, such measures may be interpreted as embodying two related kinds of obligation between the sick and healthy members of the society. To those with infectious diseases such as ADR-TB, the State—by adopting such public health interventions—is simply carrying out its health-related obligation to preserve and improve the lives of her citizens, regardless of their status of sickness.

Conversely, sick people are expected to place communal interests above personal considerations, as such, will be obligated not only to report infection but to follow through with the requisite course of health interventions that the country provides. Failure on the part of sick infectious

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.