In this paper, I will discuss two key ethics in the field of global health, utilitarianism and the capabilities approach. Utilitarianism aims to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people, and the capabilities approach aims to ensure that certain human freedoms are available and met within a population. I will discuss how these two ethics are critical to global health campaigns throughout history.
One key ethic of global health is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism operates under the principle of providing the greatest good for the greatest number. The idea of cost-effectiveness is based upon utilitarianism as well. Philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill modified moral philosophy with relation to human happiness. In
…show more content…
The Rockefeller Foundation helped to fund the PAHO and the early directors of the Rockefeller Foundation international health programs wanted to use biomedical interventions to develop stronger and more cost-effective public health systems. The Rockefeller Foundation’s health campaign in the Philippines divided the target population into units of intervention. The campaign measured progress and impact through use of standardized recording methods. Efficiency of the program however came at the cost of comprehensiveness, in the records it was found that other diseases due to socioeconomic conditions were intentionally avoided. One disease ignored was tuberculosis, it was ignored due to the assessment that this disease was beyond the scope of the organization due to its links with poverty and other social issues. Many of the campaigns launched by the PAHO and Rockefeller Foundation focused on problems that could be fixed with technical interventions such as vector control which lead to a series of mass eradication campaigns. These campaigns did have success, but focused on diseases instead of reaching a comprehensive state of good health. The idea of cost-effective interventions outweighed the idea of global health equity. The WHO utilized cost-effective analysis to develop policy for the AIDS pandemic, and AIDS treatment was deemed too expensive until the early 2000s. Other chronic diseases such as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, diabetes and depression amongst low income populations have also been deemed too expensive to treat. In the 1970s a movement for primary health care became a hopeful goal. In 1978 at the Alma-Ata conference the goal to achieve universal primary health care was set for the year 2000, but in the early 1980s a sovereign debt crisis left developing countries unable to provide comprehensive care and international development
Utilitarianism is a moral theory that states that an action is considered right as long as it promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. This theory was first proposed by Jeremy Bentham and later was refined by J.S Mill. Mill differs from Bentham by introducing a qualitative view on pleasure and makes a distinction between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. John Hospers critiques utilitarianism and shows that rule utilitarianism under more specific and stricter rules would promote utility better. Bernard Williams believes that utilitarianism is too demanding from people and instead believes virtue ethics is a better solution. Williams seems to have only considered act utilitarianism instead of rule utilitarianism, which may have better responses to the problems proposed by Williams. Sterling Hardwood purposes eleven objections to utilitarianism which can be used to help make compromise between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. I will argue that rule utilitarianism can be formed in such a way that it avoids the problems that arise from Williams, and Hardwood.
The goal is to achieve happiness and to avoid pain. He believed that a self-gratifying worth in acting derives from how a person feels, the length it last, the certainty, results that follow after taking actions, the benefits, and avoidance of any form of negative outcome. The methods of utility describe the meaning of moral obligation. This is refereed the happiness for all affected by the action taken. Bentham indicates that social policies are exanimated by the effectiveness it has on the general population that is involved. However, Mills utilitarianism on moral theory is an extension from Bentham’s view. He suggested some improvements to Bentham’s structure, meaning, and application (Philosophy Pages,
In Utilitarianism, J.S. Mill gives an account for the reasons one must abide by the principles of Utilitarianism. Also referred to as the Greatest-happiness Principle, this doctrine promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest amount of people. More specifically, Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, holding that the right act is that which yields the greatest net utility, or "the total amount of pleasure minus the total amount of pain", for all individuals affected by said act (Joyce, lecture notes from 03/30).
The second key point focuses on primary care. To be able to have health care that is functional and effective it starts with primary care. “A robust primary care system is the cornerstone for a more equitable health care system” (Fiscella, 2011). Restructuring of this program in certain areas is important “payment reform, enhancing the training pipeline, transforming practice, and buttressing the primary care safety net” (Fiscella, 2011).
Utilitarianism provides a method for calculating the moral worth of specific actions in terms of their consequences. Utilitarianism teaches that happiness comprises the fundamental purpose and pursuit of human life. Therefore, the value and worth of any given action should be evaluated in terms of its ability to produce happiness. The utilitarian defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain, and teaches that in all cases individuals should act in such a way as to achieve the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people. Utilitarianism...
Throughout this paper I will argue between Mil (Utilitarianism) and Held (Care Ethics). Mil is a British Philosopher well known for his ethical and political work and Held is an American Feminist and Moral Philosopher. After reading this essay you will have a good view on what Utilitarianism and Care Ethics is and also what my concluding position is.
The main principle of utilitarianism is the greatest happiness principle. It states that, "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure" (Mill, 1863, Ch. 2, p330). In other words, it results with the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people that are involved.
In conclusion, the ultimate significance to this type of work is to improve the quality of healthcare in these extremely impoverished nations. This argument is represented in Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, Monte Leach’s “Ensuring Health Care as a Global Human Right”, and Darshark Sanghavi’s “Is it Cost Effective to Treat the World’s Poor.” The idea that universal healthcare is a human right is argued against in Michael F. Cannon’s “A “Right” to health care?” Cannon claims that it would not work, and fills the holes that the other authors leave in their arguments. All of these articles share the same ultimate goal, and that is to provide every individual with adequate health care, and to not let so many people die from things that could easily have been prevented or treated.
Utilitarianism defined, is the contention that a man should judge everything based on the ability to promote the greatest individual happiness. In other words Utilitarianism states that good is what brings the most happiness to the most people. John Stuart Mill based his utilitarian principle on the decisions that we make. He says the decisions should always benefit the most people as much as possible no matter what the consequences might be. Mill says that we should weigh the outcomes and make our decisions based on the outcome that benefits the majority of the people. This leads to him stating that pleasure is the only desirable consequence of our decision or actions. Mill believes that human beings are endowed with the ability for conscious thought, and they are not satisfied with physical pleasures, but they strive to achieve pleasure of the mind as well.
A vertical public health program is a public health strategy where the majority of a health organization’s resources and expenses are concentrated to addressing one pressing health issue. Vertical public health programs generally foster the initiative to eradicate epidemic or pandemic disease. Understanding how a vertical programming is applied will allow public health practitioners to tailor health programs and initiatives to populations more efficiently and effectively. Advantages of vertical programming include harboring and dealing with singular goals as well as obtaining easily measurable progress towards the overall operation. Because of this, as well as the effective end result of vertical programing in achieving its goal, public health professionals can attain to its success as a program. However, vertical public health programs divert resources from other health institutions, therefore weakening the progress towards treating other medical problems. Therefore, this approach may have aspects of it that are appealing, yet it frequently neglects other issues and makes them seem less important, which should not be the case. In the case of a vertical program failing, as seen in the Hookworm Eradication Initiative, not only does the eradication of a disease not come to fruition, but treatment towards other ailments, for example, are hindered. Vertical programming draws resources and expertise away from primary care and the prevention of public health problems, contributing to the exacerbation of illnesses due to lack of sanitation, nutrition, and primary prevention, and is therefore inefficient.
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory that was first theorized by Jeremy Bentham, who summed up the fundamental quality of utilitarianism as, “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.” Bentham was not a religious person and did not want to involve
Utilitarianism is a movement in ethics which began in the late eighteenth centaury and is primarily associated with the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham and was later adapted and fully developed by John Stuart Mill in the ninetieth century. . The theory states that we should try to achieve ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’. Utilitarianism is a teleological theory of ethics. Teleological theories of ethics look at the consequences to decide whether an action is right or wrong. Utilitarianism is defined as a doctrine that the useful is the good and that the determining consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of it consequences: specifically: a theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible
Morality as a whole tries to create a distinction between right and wrong, good and bad. Making decisions should arguably always be aimed towards good. Under the philosophical doctrine of Utilitarianism, philosophers like Bentham and Mill recognize that human kind should make their lives useful and good through bringing about happiness or pleasure. The idea of the “Greatest Happiness Principle was introduced by Bentham, who was a Utilitarian predecessor to Mill. According to Mill, human lives should abide by the “Greatest Happiness Principle.” This principle states that actions are good as they tend to promote happiness; and bad as they promote the reverse of happiness, therefore humans should make a conscious choice of action that will lead
Both Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, had thoughts of the Principle of Utility and what it should be like. Bentham believes that the Principle of Utility depends on pain and pleasure and Mill believes that the Principle of Utility depends on higher pleasures and lower pleasures. Pain meaning evil and pleasure meaning good or greater benefits and higher pleasures meaning that action was good which would lead to a higher level of happiness and lower pleasures meaning bad which would lead to a decreasing level of happiness. Therefore, a normative ethical theory that has come through from this and it is Utilitarianism. The definition of Utilitarianism is a course of action that maximizes the total
Utilitarianism is one of the best known and influential moral theories. There are two different meanings to two words but at times, they can be the same perspective. Utilitarianism is different from ethical theories it makes the rightness and wrongness of an act dependent to a person. The right thing can be done from a bad motivation. There are consequences including good or bad by the act. It is between an action and their happiness or unhappy outcomes depending on the circumstances. There is no moral principle only itself of utilitarianism. It balances the individuality and community of happiness. The purpose of the morality is by making life better and increasing that amount of good deed. “Another aspect of utilitarianism is the belief that