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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Robert E. McKeown, PhD, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health, Columbia, SC 29208, 803-777-6220, rmckeown@sophe.sph.sc.edu
The claim that health is a good to be desired for individuals and communities suggests that there is an obligation to promote health for individuals and communities, and that public health action inevitably carries moral freight. Given the scope of public health, public health professionals and agencies frequently face, and often generate, tension between competing values and obligations. As public health professionals we share core values and obligations and incur ethical dilemmas unique to our calling. We are often called upon to determine avenues of investigation, protocols for research, courses of action, and regulatory or programmatic policies that are intended to promote health but that may also have uncertain scientific basis, place constraints on fundamental rights, impose risks, or allocate resources or benefits inequitably. This presentation will examine specific ethical tensions or challenges in epidemiologic research in light of the Public Health Code of Ethics. Issues include individual rights and the common good; the role of health as a moral value; Type I, Type II, and Type III errors as ethical issues; the role of communities in research and policy formation and implementation. The presentation will lead into a general discussion of the Code and case studies.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Ethics, Epidemiology
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.