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 Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in the field of medicine and healthcare. However, there are no articles specifically examining ethical and moral dimensions of AI use for evidence synthesis. This article attempts to fills this gap. In doing so, I deploy in written form, what in Bengali philosophy and culture, is the Adda (আড্ডা) […]
Introduction At an international public health conference in 2022 that drew more than 3,000 sexual and reproductive health (SRH) professionals from around the world, a French-speaking researcher began his presentation by saying, “Je suis désolé, je parle français” (I’m sorry, I speak French). Despite the conference having heavily advertised English-French interpretation services, the interpretation was […]
Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in the field of medicine and healthcare. However, there are no articles specifically examining ethical and moral dimensions of AI use for evidence synthesis. This article attempts to fills this gap. In doing so, I deploy in written form, what in Bengali philosophy and culture, is the Adda (আড্ডা) […]