Health Justice: An Argument from the Capabilities ApproachSocial factors have a powerful influence on human health and longevity. Yet the social dimensions of health are often obscured in public discussions due to the overwhelming focus in health policy on medical care, individual-level risk factor research, and changing individual behaviours. Likewise, in philosophical approaches to health and social justice, the debates have largely focused on rationing problems in health care and on personal responsibility. However, a range of events over the past two decades such as the study of modern famines, the global experience of HIV/AIDS, the international women’s health movement, and the flourishing of social epidemiological research have drawn attention to the robust relationship between health and broad social arrangements. In Health Justice, Sridhar Venkatapuram takes up the problem of identifying what claims individuals have in regard to their health in modern societies and the globalized world. Recognizing the social bases of health and longevity, Venkatapuram extends the ‘Capabilities Approach’ of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum into the domain of health and health sciences. In so doing, he formulates an inter-disciplinary argument that draws on the natural and social sciences as well as debates around social justice to argue for every human being’s moral entitlement to a capability to be healthy. An ambitious integration of the health sciences and the Capabilities Approach, Health Justice aims to provide a concrete ethical grounding for the human right to health, while advancing the field of health policy and placing health at the centre of social justice theory. With a foreword by Sir Michael Marmot, chair of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. |
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User Review - vegetarian - LibraryThingFocuses on health as capability, from which duties and responsibilities emerge, and the goal of healthcare is the enablement of human capability, though medical care delivery is not the end point of our ethical consideration. Read full review
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Health Justice: An Argument from the Capabilities Approach Sridhar Venkatapuram No preview available - 2011 |
Health Justice: An Argument from the Capabilities Approach Sridhar Venkatapuram No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
advocates aggregate Amartya Sen analysis argues argument basic capabilities behaviours biological biomedical model Boorse Boorse’s capabilities and functionings capabilities approach causation and distribution causes central human capabilities CHCs coherent conception of health conversion skills Daniels determinants of health Development disability disease distribution patterns eco-social economic endowments environment equal human dignity ethical evaluation factors famines focus focused global justice health and longevity health capability health equity health functionings health inequalities health justice healthcare human rights identify impairments and mortality income inequality individual’s individuals inequalities in health luck egalitarianism Marmot Martha Nussbaum minimal national borders needs Nordenfelt Nussbaum ofjustice one’s person philosophy physical political population premature mortality public health Rawls reasoning recognize Robeyns Sen’s social arrangements social bases social conditions social contract social determinants social epidemiology social groups social justice societies theory of health theory of justice threshold utilitarianism values welfare well-being World Health Organization
Bibliographic information
| Title | Health Justice: An Argument from the Capabilities Approach |
| Author | Sridhar Venkatapuram |
| Contributor | Sir Michael Marmot |
| Publisher | John Wiley & Sons, 2013 |
| ISBN | 0745637507, 9780745637501 |
| Length | 288 pages |
| Subjects | › Medical / Public Health Philosophy / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |