Abstract The field of planetary health ethics is beginning to emerge. This commentary represents a preliminary effort to articulate ethical principles for planetary health by considering three domains: (1) non‐sentient nature, (2) non‐human animals, and (3) human beings. The paper gives special attention to Japanese traditions and concepts as a possible basis for broader ethical […]
Abstract This article proposes a cosmopolitan theory of global health ethics based on reconciliatory solidarity at both local and global levels. The proposed theory provides the ethical and empirical grounds for the moral imperative of global health solidarity that is often called on today. Reconciliatory solidarity requires that a people/nation-state address the historical injustice and […]
Severe threats to the health of humans and other species derive from degradation of Earth’s life-support systems, particularly the impacts of climate change. Researchers and practitioners in clinical medicine, public health, global health, and One Health are increasingly focusing on these risks to planetary health, which include (but are not limited to) rising temperatures, extreme […]
Following widespread criticism, so-called poverty porn, which usually appears in the guise of photographs featuring people in extreme states of suffering, is now largely discouraged in contemporary ethical communications guidelines, because it reduces people to decontextualised, suffering, and racialised bodies. Does this reduction mean that such biased imagery is a thing of the past? Alarmingly, this […]
Internalised racism constitutes an adoption of beliefs about one’s inferiority, weaknesses or shortcomings as a function of racial hierarchy affecting one’s identity and self-worth, thoughts, emotions and behaviours. Internalised racism stems from widely known and discussed institutional racial discrimination, which perpetuates epistemic injustice, social injustice and health inequities in global health. In this article, reflecting […]
In March, 2024, Safiyyah Abbas and Lucy Mitchell highlighted the atrocities unfolding in Gaza and the failure of Australian medical institutions to mount a meaningful protest. Since then, the Israeli Government’s sustained and widespread assaults on civilians—combined with deliberate obstruction of food, water, fuel, and medical supplies—have prompted the International Criminal Court to issue arrest […]
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 […]