Rethinking Medical Ethics

Rethinking Medical Ethics: A View from Below and Mountains beyond Mountains are two readings that will be further analyzed to demonstrate how re-socializing and re-humanizing medicine concurrently may be of importance to global health. As a recap, the former is a philosophical work that gives context to the idea of re-socialization in the medical field (Farmer). The latter is a literary, non-fictional piece that documents the life of Paul Farmer, from his early upbringing to his involvement with treating infectious diseases, from a third-person point of view (Kidder). From engagement with these readings, I have found the critical assessment of the upstream causes of health inequality as it pertains to a particular country's political, economic

For instance, it is imperative for leaders in this field to examine the problems that have been of major focus in other disciplines, such as the social sciences, to get a more accurate depiction of the underlying causes of health inequality and why these determinants have a significant leverage in health outcomes. Examples of social determinants include education, quality of housing, working conditions and access to clean water. With that being said, this approach would give ethicists the necessary tools to pinpoint various forms of systemic oppression, better known as the "upstream causes," which contribute to disparities in these factors and health. Moreover, there are key instances of systemic oppression in Kidder's Mountains beyond Mountains and their detrimental impact on the lives of those who live in impoverished populations, in terms of the high rates of tuberculosis and lack of access to

In addition, more emphasis on treatment would be placed on the individual, instead of the disease itself. Narrative-based medicine, in particular, centers on the importance of patient's stories in developing effective interventions grounded in the interpretation of their accounts as well as improving communication in the patient-provider relationship. In Mountains beyond Mountains, the people's narrative gives insight on their history (medical, social or economic) prior to contracting the illness, how they are coping with the illness and what needs to change in terms of the quality and accessibility to treatment. The patient's perception of their illness can also be extracted from the narrative, which adds much clarity to the context of