A Global Ecological Ethic for Human Health Resources

J Bioeth Inq. 2020 Dec;17(4):575-580. doi: 10.1007/s11673-020-10039-2. Epub 2020 Nov 9.

Abstract

COVID 19 has highlighted with lethal force the need to re-imagine and re-design the provisioning of human resources for health, starting from the reality of our radical interdependence and concern for global health and justice. Starting from the structured health injustice suffered by migrant workers during the pandemic and its impact on the health of others in both destination and source countries, I argue here for re-structuring the system for educating and distributing care workers around what I call a global ecological ethic. Rather than rely on a system that privileges nationalism, that is unjust, and that sustains and even worsens injustice, including health injustice, and that has profound consequences for global health, a global ecological ethic would have us see health as interdependent and aim at "ethical place-making" across health ecosystems to enable people everywhere to have the capability to be healthy.

Keywords: Care workers; Global justice; Globalization; Health equity; Health justice; Health workers; Human health resources; Migrant care workers; Structural injustice; Vulnerability.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19* / therapy
  • Delivery of Health Care / ethics*
  • Ecosystem
  • Foreign Professional Personnel*
  • Global Health*
  • Health Equity
  • Health Personnel*
  • Health Resources
  • Health Workforce*
  • Humans
  • Internationality
  • Pandemics
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Social Justice*