Emrging Glbl Hlth Threats/Eth

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex ethical dimensions of managing emerging global health threats. It will explore ethical issues concerning three dimensions of emerging global health: practice, policy, and research. It will address chronic and contemporary ethical issues in the field by unpacking the power imbalances in global health and examining the history and current practices in the field. Part 1 will provide a historical background of the evolution of the field of global health and clarify the rationale for practicing global health ethics. Part 2 will focus on understanding the ethical issues concerning the practice of global health. It will present the ethical dilemmas inherent in global disease-specific global health programs such as HIV, Malaria, Cancer, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on unequal access to quality technologies and treatment as well as issues concerning the disproportionate burden of the diseases in LMICs. Part 3 will focus on Global health policy and governance and will examine the ethical implications of the evolving global health governance landscape. The students will study the role of different global health actors in global health governance, including multilateral organizations, financial institutions like the World Bank, Civil Society Organizations, and commercial actors, and will explore issues such as ‘philanthrocapitalism’ to understand the ethical issues regarding philanthropy in global health. Part 4 will focus on ethical issues concerning global health research and engage with concepts like ‘parachute research’, author reflexivity in addition to covering topics related to informed consent, preserving data privacy, and engaging with communities, while also contemplating the ethical obligations of investigators towards the communities they investigate. Finally, students will learn about approaches for ethical global health practice by studying models of global health accountability such as the Framework for Tobacco Convention and People’s Health Movements. They will also read about new initiatives like the Global Health 50/50 report as an accountability mechanism for improving global health. Students will end the course with a speculative design exercise where they will develop a model for an ethical global health system to handle emerging global health threats.