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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Lisa Eckenwiler, PhD, Department of Philosophy, Old Dominion University, BAL 401, Norfolk, VA 23529, 757.748.3327, leckenwi@odu.edu

Given the dramatic demographic shifts facing many nations, health policy scholars and others have begun to examine several dimensions of caregiving for the elderly. Yet few have explored the implications for ethics and policy of the global economic arrangements that organize caregiving labor.

My presentation will focus on how these arrangements work to undermine justice and threaten human rights in the U.S. and abroad. Through a variety of means, governments, the for-profit sector, and international lending bodies contribute to an unjust global distribution of caring resources, and the exploitation of caregivers -- especially women who migrate from impoverished parts of the world in search of nursing and other caregiving jobs. They also serve to support inadequate policies related to caregiving (such as employee leave) in many privileged nations, creating moral distress, economic insecurity, and adverse health consequences for family caregivers, especially women. Globally, yet especially in poor countries, they promote conditions that lead to profoundly unethical treatment of the elderly and dependent.

My presentation will argue for a conception of justice that takes account of economic relations that link governments, corporate bodies, and other institutions transnationally. Incorporating this conception of justice into public health policy could lead to strategies that better support unpaid caregivers, reformed lending agreements, reformed hiring and labor policies in the U.S. and other privileged countries, and capacity-building projects for developing nations. Above all, it could lead to justice for caregivers currently facing inequality and exploitation, and to better care for the elderly and dependent worldwide.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to

• identify the global economic arrangements which organize caregiving labor
• analyze how these arrangements undermine justice and threaten human rights around the world
• apply a conception of justice that can be used to shape more ethical policy for caregivers and the elderly and dependent

Keywords: Caregivers, Ethics

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation