Introduction
The case focuses on the health crisis in Haiti caused by the government’s insufficient measures in providing the population with safe water sources and access to improved sanitation. Furthermore, the case emphasizes the importance of public health ethical concepts, which allow other countries and international aid agencies to provide more assistance to the population than their government. Thus, the case can be connected with public health ethical concepts such as autonomy and paternalism, power, social justice, and discrimination.
Discussion
Firstly, the case connects with the concept of autonomy which enables an other-oriented approach to public health ethics. In clinical ethics, the autonomy principle refers to respect for patient decisions (Ortmann et al., 2016, p. 23). In public health ethics, paternalism can override personal autonomy to ensure the efficiency of preventive measures for the protection of the population (Ortmann et al., 2016, p. 26). However, in this case, autonomy refers to the decisions taken by the small group of the elite population of the country, which controls most of the country’s wealth. The transition from autonomy to paternalism and mandatory vaccination of the population with oral cholera vaccines could have been an effective measure for the Haitian government (Millum, 2016, p. 270). The Haitian government made an autonomous decision to neglect its responsibilities to citizens. However, this autonomy does not extend to assistance that international agencies should provide to Haiti.
Furthermore, depending on how power is used in the country’s public health policy, power can present a source of inequality in population and health gaps. Power can also be used by the state to address health inequalities through measures such as vaccinations (Lee et al.,2016, p. 41). In the case of Haiti, the main source of power does not make effective decisions to prevent the spread of the disease. International aid agencies lack the power needed to solve the problem; however, this means that they must provide even more assistance in order to help solve the health problem.
Next, international aid is closely connected with concepts of social justice and discrimination. Social justice and health equity present the central concerns of public health’s mission (Ortmann et al., 2016, p. 8). Social justice strives for equal opportunities for all people, while its application in public health allows focusing on marginalized populations with higher illness rates and higher chances of adverse health outcomes. Furthermore, considering the different points of view, from the perspective of the Haitian government, illnesses discriminate against the poor population, exposing them to higher chances of getting infected. However, from the international agencies’ perspective based on the principles of social justice, the Haitian population experiences injustice in the unequal distribution of healthcare services, which prevents the population from attaining their full health potential. Thus, a social justice-focused perspective allows international agencies to look at the public health problem in conjunction with social conditions contributing to the issue.
Conclusion
In conclusion, analysis of the public health ethics concepts used in the case allowed us to define the reasons why international aid agencies should provide more assistance to the population of Haiti. Firstly, the paper explained that the autonomous decisions of the Haitian government, which neglected its responsibilities to its citizens, do not affect the provision of assistance to the population by international agencies. Next, the paper explained that only the local government has the power for effective paternalistic decision-making. However, if the state refuses to make such decisions, international agencies should provide even higher levels of assistance to contribute to solving the problem. Lastly, the paper identified that international agencies can look at the public health problem from the point of view of social justice, which helps them eliminate negative social conditions.
References
Lee, L. M., Spector-Bagdady, K., & Sakhuja, M. (2016). Essential cases in the development of public health ethics. In D. H. Barrett, L. W. Ortmann, A. Dawson, C. Saenz, A. Reis, & G. Bolan (Eds.), Public health ethics analysis (pp. 37-58). Springer.
Millum, J. (2016). Case 5: Transmitting cholera to Haiti. In D. H. Barrett, L. W. Ortmann, A. Dawson, C. Saenz, A. Reis, & G. Bolan (Eds.), Public health ethics analysis (pp. 270-273). Springer.
Ortmann, L. W., Barrett, D. H., Saenz, C., Bernheim, R. G., Dawson, A., Valentine, J. A., & Reis, A. (2016). Public health ethics: Global cases, practice, and context. In D. H. Barrett, L. W. Ortmann, A. Dawson, C. Saenz, A. Reis, & G. Bolan (Eds.), Public health ethics analysis (pp. 3-35). Springer.