Westerly High School Library: Ethics of Public Health Decisions

The mandate to ensure and protect the health of the public is an inherently moral one. It carries with it an obligation to care for the well-being of communities, and it implies the possession of an element of power to carry out that mandate. The need to exercise power to ensure the health of populations and, at the same time, to avoid abuses of such power are at the crux of public health ethics.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages. The UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels.

The American Public Health Association's Public Health Code of Ethics is a set of professional standards and expectations intended for public health
practitioners1
throughout the feld.

Our mission is to promote the interests of medical educators, medical practitioners and scientists, the care and well-being of patients, the protection of public health, and the betterment of the medical profession, as well as to protect and promote the historic values that have provided the longstanding foundation for Western medical care.

The Hastings Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created from multiple disciplines, including philosophy, law, political science, and education. The Hastings Center was critical to establishing the field of bioethics in 1969 and has been evolving ever since. Founded by philosopher Daniel Callahan and psychoanalyst Willard Gaylin, The Hastings Center is the oldest independent, nonpartisan, interdisciplinary research institute of its kind in the world. The Hastings Center and its scholars produce publications on ethical issues in health, science, and technology that inform policy, practice, and public understanding of bioethics.

Since its involvement in promoting international reflection on the ethics of life sciences in the 1970s, UNESCO continues to build and reinforce linkages among ethicists, scientists, policy-makers, judges, journalists, and civil society to assist Member States in enacting sound and reasoned policies on ethical issues in science and technology.

Bioethics Outlook is a quarterly publication of the Plunkett Centre. Since then Bioethics Outlook has appeared quarterly. It is a 12-page magazine on significant issues for bioethical consideration. Its audience includes students, teachers, members of boards, academics and health care professionals.

The Center for Practical Bioethics is a nonprofit, free-standing and independent organization nationally recognized for its work in practical bioethics

Download our audio on the go - or select any of our 300 expert interviews on healthcare policy and end of life planning.

The NIH Department of Bioethics is one of the nation's preeminent centers for bioethics scholarship and training. Since the Departments establishment in 1996, its members have consistently produced high-impact conceptual and empirical research published in leading journals, and have served as leaders in this evolving field. We are committed to interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration, with a focus on bringing medical, legal, philosophical, and scientific disciplines to bear on contemporary questions in bioethics.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is an independent body that examines and reports on ethical issues in biology and medicine. The Council has achieved an international reputation for advising policy makers and stimulating debate in bioethics.

The Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy is based in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The Department stands as one of the premier institutions of research and education in medical ethics and health policy in the world.

Document: Principles of the Ethical Practice of Public Health