Abstract The spectre of human-induced climate change has drawn attention to the need to discover new, environmentally sustainable approaches to healthcare. This article draws upon David McPherson’s The Virtues of Limits (2021) to develop a virtue ethics for sustainability in healthcare. I explore how a virtuous appreciation of the value of healthcare resources can lead us to […]
ABSTRACT Health systems contribute to the environmental crisis. Yet, addressing this problem seems to generate a resource allocation dilemma for hospitals: investing in healthcare delivery seems to mean sacrificing environmental goods, and vice versa. We question this zero-sum thinking. After presenting the benefits of investing in the two seemingly competing goods—environmental goods and health goods—we […]
Abstract Human activity is now having a defining influence on global systems. The Anthropocene epoch requires revisiting our ethical presuppositions to understand our relationship to the earth’s life support systems. The Land Ethic of Aldo Leopold proposes an ethic that is diachronic, holistic, and biocentric, in contrast to the synchronic, individualist, and anthropocentric axioms of […]
Abstract In this paper, I am concerned with how healthcare systems ought to transition away from the greenhouse gas emissions that they have historically relied on to provide care. I address two questions in relation to this issue. The first is what emissions target should healthcare systems adopt? Second, is how should the burdens of […]
Recent literature has drawn attention to the complex relationship between health care and the environmental crisis. Healthcare systems are significant contributors to climate change and environmental degradation, and the environmental crisis is making our health worse and thus putting more pressure on healthcare systems; our health and the environment are intricately linked. In light of […]
Our healthcare systems are responsible for delivering essential, often life-saving care to patients within the society that they serve. It has long been recognised that healthcare systems, as basic social institutions, have duties of health and social justice.1 Healthcare systems should help ensure people are free of preventable morbidity and mortality2 and able to function normally3 such that […]
This paper aims to rethink healthcare sustainability from an eco-ethical approach, mainly referring to van Rensselaer Potter’s global bioethics and Arne Naess’s ecosophy. In this sense, it seeks to address the ethical problem of allocating resources from a non-individualist and essentially bio-medical perspective, which interprets health (or disease) as a mere feature of the individual. […]
Abstract Unfair knowledge practices easily beset our efforts to achieve health equity within and between countries. Enacted by people from a distance and from a position of power (‘the centre’) on behalf of and alongside people with less power (‘the periphery’), these unfair practices have generated a complex literature of complaints across various axes of […]
Abstract Education systems and pedagogical practices in global public health are facing substantive calls for change during the current and ongoing ‘decolonising global health’ movement. Incorporating antioppressive principles into learning communities is one promising approach to decolonising global health education. We sought to transform a four-credit graduate-level global health course at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg […]
Significance Empirical evidence suggests that non-White scientists experience various forms of inequality, creating barriers to their entry and participation in academic research. We contribute to this literature by examining disparities in i) editorial board representation, ii) time spent under review, and iii) citation rates. Using a dataset of 1,000,000 papers from six publishers over the […]