An Ethical Agenda for Global Public Health

Abstract

The authors articulate an ethical agenda centered on the preferential option for the poor and discuss fake, deceptive, and unjust options. Examples of these options are: first, the discovery of the pathogenesis of malaria led to implement health measures that showed a preferential option for the rich and the White. Second, the 1918 flu pandemic and the 2014 Ebola pandemic manifest a tragic preferential option for the Empire. Third, any imperial-like logic, which considers citizens not as equal contributors in promoting their health, could be called a “preferential option for the artists formerly known as the Empire.” Fourth, the lack of healthcare professionals and the insufficient healthcare systems weight on family caregivers. Hence, one witnesses the preferential option for family members as caregivers. Finally, the preferential option for the poor is beneficial, for people and society. Universities exemplify how social transformation and the promotion of the common good can occur.