Abstract
There are several reasons for the current prominence of global health issues. Among the most important is the growing awareness that some risks to health are global in scope and can only be countered by global cooperation. In addition, human rights discourse and, more generally, the articulation of a coherent cosmopolitan ethical perspective that acknowledges the importance of all persons, regardless of where they live, provide a normative basis for taking global health seriously as a moral issue. In this paper we begin the task of translating the vague commitment to doing something to improve global health into a coherent set of more determinate obligations. One chief conclusion of our inquiry is that the responsibilities of states regarding global health are both more determinate and more extensive than is usually assumed. We also argue, however, that institutional innovation will be needed to achieve a more comprehensive, fair distribution of concrete responsibilities regarding global health and to provide effective mechanisms for holding various state and nonstate actors accountable for fulfilling them.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Dan W. Brock A. Buchanan (1986) “Ethical Issues in For-Profit Health Care” Bradford Gray (Eds) For-Profit Enterprise in Health Care National Academy Press Washington, DC 224–249
A. Buchanan (1984) ArticleTitle“The Right to a Decent Minimum of Health Care” Philosophy & Public Affairs 13 55–78
A. Buchanan (2003) Justice, Legitimacy, and Self-Determination: Moral Foundations for International Law Oxford University Press New York
Bradford Gray (Eds) (1986) For-Profit Enterprise in Health Care National Academy Press Washington, DC
Hessler, K. “A Theory of Interpretation for Human Rights.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Arizona, 2001.
K. Hessler A. Buchanan (2002) “Specifying the Content of the Human Right to Health Care” R. Rhodes M. Battin A. Silvers (Eds) Medicine and Social Justice: Essays on the Distribution of Health Care Oxford University Press New York
InstitutionalAuthorNameInternational Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2001) The Responsibility to Protect International Development Research Centre Ottawa
Lacey, M. “Beyond Bullets and Blades.” The New York Times. March 20, 2005.
J. Nickel (1987) Making Sense of Human Rights University of California Press Berkeley
O. O’Neill (2004) “Global Justice: Whose Obligations?” D.K. Chatterjee (Eds) The Ethics of Assistance: Morality and the Distant Needy Cambridge University Press New York 242–259
T. Pogge (2002) World Poverty and Human Rights Polity Press Cambridge, UK
H. Shue (1980) Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence, and U.S. Foreign Policy EditionNumber2 Princeton University Press Princeton, NJ
Anne-Marie Slaughter (2004) A New World Order Princeton University Press Princeton, NJ
G. Sreenivasan (2002) ArticleTitle“International Justice and Health: A Proposal” Ethics & International Affairs 16 81–90
InstitutionalAuthorNameWorld Health Organization World Trade Organization Secretariat (2002) WTO Agreements and Public Health World Trade Organization Geneva
World Trade Organization. Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. Geneva: World Trade Organization, 1994. Available at: http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/27-trips.pdf. Accessed 25 March 2005.
InstitutionalAuthorNameWorld Trade Organization (2003) The WTO in Brief World Trade Organization Geneva
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Buchanan, A., DeCamp, M. Responsibility for Global Health. Theor Med Bioeth 27, 95–114 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-005-5755-0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-005-5755-0