Health equity beyond borders: The demands of justice in global health

Thesis

Health is widely regarded as being among our most valuable goods and highest ideals. At the same time, the contemporary state of global health makes for grim reading with immense suffering and deprivation across mortality and morbidity, especially within developing countries. This thesis is a work of political philosophy which takes seriously the complex reality of global injustice in our world today. It provides a comprehensive political philosophical account of what justice demands in the sphere of global health. My arguments in the thesis unfold over broadly two parts. In the first part of the thesis, I analyse some foundational debates in health and global health including how to conceptualise the nature and moral significance of health and healthcare, and how it ought to be balanced against other health and non-health pursuits both domestically and globally. These foundational discussions, together, provide the grounding for the forthcoming discussions while highlighting the importance of taking a global perspective in discussions of health justice. In the second part of the thesis, I present a novel theory of global health justice I call Genuine Opportunity for Health (GOH). GOH argues that the currency of global health justice is pluralistic (incorporating health outcomes alongside considerations of health security and the costs of pursuing and maintaining health), and that everyone, regardless of nationality or place of birth, should have genuine opportunity to attain a decent and secure standard of health. GOH has important normative and practical implications across a range of dimensions, including in our conceptualisation of national responsibility, in the requirements of our rescue and global health duties, and in the permissibility of interventions to address brain drain.

Authors: Go, JJQ

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-0zn49bnby
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Global Justice; Health Justice; Distributive Justice; Genuine Opportunity for Health; Health Equity
• Subjects: Ethics; Philosophy; Political science--Philosophy