Public Health: Ethical Concerns and Potential Barriers

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Introduction Public health is an important aspect of human life and there is need for the healthcare practitioners to ensure that they give proper healthcare services to human beings in ensuring their protection. Public health is an art and a science mandated with the responsibility of preventing disease thereby prolonging life of an individual and promotion of the health through different health organizations, societies, public, and private (Aginam, 2005). The major part of public is dealing in the disease prevention rather than curing since the practitioners believe in the core principle that prevention is better than cure. Even though it gives much weight in the prevention, public health also assists in the treatment of various diseases. This paper gives an elaborate discussion of the ethical concerns of public health and their potential barriers. During the discussion, the paper gives an evaluation into the domestic and international policies used in dismantling structural inequalities, impact of politics and potential corruption on the implementation of proper public healthcare services (Gostin & Milbank Memorial Fund, 2002). In addition, it gives an overview of the effects of international law in protecting vulnerable populations, evaluating the resources allocations, ethical considerations, and available strategies for obtaining the necessary data for enhancing the ethical concerns. Ethical Concerns The major categories of ethical concerns in the public health field and provision of the necessary healthcare practices include paternalism, responsibilities, utilitarianism, liberalization, rights, and freedom of the patients in as much as the disease prevention and treatment is concerned. It is important that all thes... ... middle of paper ... ...(2000). Ethics in Public and Community Health. New York: Routledge Publishers. Gostin, L. & Milbank Memorial Fund (2002). Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader. California: University of California Press. Martin, R. & Johnson, L. (2001). Law and the Public Dimension of Health. United Kingdom: Cavendish Publishing Ltd. Peckham, S. & Hann, A. (2010). Public Health Ethics and Practice. United Kingdom: Policy Press. Public Health Leadership Society (2002). Principles of the Ethical Practice of Public Health. Retrieved on March 2, 2011 from http://www.apha.org/NR/rdonlyres/1CED3CEA-287E-4185-9CBD-BD405FC60856/0/ethicsbrochure.pdf Schneider, M. (2011). Introduction to Public Health (3rd Ed). Ontario: Jones and Bartlett Publishers Usohs.gov (2010). America’s Health Responders: U.S. Public Health Service Corps. Retrieved on March 2, 2011 from http://www.usphs.gov/

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