Health and Social Justice

ISBN: 9780199559978 出版年：2010 页码：313 Ruger, Jennifer Prah Oxford University Press

Over several decades, scientific progress has expanded our ability to improve human health, and many regions of the world have achieved significant health gains. Yet extreme deprivation in health is still widespread. Resolving this predicament of major health improvement in the midst of deprivation is one of the greatest global challenges of the new millennium. These health disparities exist in a world that is becoming more closely linked in all domains, including health. The rapid spread and quick containment of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) demonstrates the interconnectedness of our world as well as any recent health phenomenon. The same trend can be seen with HIV/AIDS and the potential to link solutions and best practices studied in one part of the globe with persistent health problems in another. In the midst of such rapid global change and persistent health disparities, we need to revisit and underscore the moral and philosophical foundations for health improvement activities—to give them more forceful grounding and solidity. In this essay, I briefly survey some traditional philosophies of justice and health care. I then offer an alternative view of justice and health that is rooted in Amartya Sen’s capability approach and Aristotle’s political theory, and discuss the implications of this approach for health improvement across the globe.