Walden University Ethical Issues in Public Health Discussion

Imagine that you are living in the year 1900. You work on your family farm tending to the fields and animals and you are only expected to live into your mid-forties. Your house has no indoor plumbing and you need to work daily to prepare everything that you eat and drink. You do not have easy access to other people or information, and you only went to school for a few years before you began working on the farm. This is a very different reality from your current life. You now likely work outside of your home, enjoy many innovations like a flushing toilet and cellphone, and are expected to live quite a bit longer.

Many changes to daily life were a product of public health programs, interventions, and innovations. As we continue to grow and develop, the dynamic field of public health grows with us. Consider the medical research using stem cells: While many consider the results of using embryonic stem cells to be promising, moral and ethical issues arise with their use, according to James Gallagher (2013). Gallagher reported that scientists in the U.S. were able to use similar methods to those that produced Dolly, the first cloned mammal in 1996, to generate embryonic stem cells. While using this method may be more expensive and complex than other currently available sources, such as adult stem cells, the groundwork may have been laid for continuing to use cloning technology to bypass the problem of rejection. What are the issues with these advances in technology and medicine?

Are these just issues with specific medical advancements? Is this outside the realm of public health? What problems could we possibly create by improving water quality or reducing healthcare disparities? Could we cause more damage to the Earth by reducing the effects of climate change or addressing air pollution? Is it possible to eradicate emerging diseases or antibiotic resistance, and, if so, are there drawbacks to meeting this and other public health goals? Is future technology the answer to some of these issues? On this topic, life coach Rasheed Ogunlaru (n.d.) said; “Advances in technology can be empowering, progressive and enriching. History has shown this across civilisations and societies. But it has also shown, and the present and future will continue to show, that it is foolish, risky, flawed and folly without us raising our individual and collective consciousness and mindfulness to accompany it – to ensure we use it shrewdly, kindly and wisely.”

To meet the needs of the people, those in public health will have to stay current on the issues and trends that impact their work to improve the health of the population. For some public health professionals, this will mean being actively involved in monitoring research and accomplishments in technology and medicine, or it might mean becoming involved in political action groups.

In this 2-week module, you will discuss the ethical issues associated with a specific case study provided by your Instructor. In the Assignment, you will analyze emerging public health issues and the efforts to address them along with the ethical issues in managing a public health problem. In addition, you will consider and reflect on the barriers you might encounter throughout your doctoral program and how you will address them. Finally, you will reflect on what you learned in this course and how you can use it in your future courses

Like many other fields, public health inherently raises issues of ethics and morality. For example, the allocation of resources could benefit some populations while offering no benefit to others. Political interventions often favor some groups over others as well. Navigating these situations can be challenging, but, thankfully, there are many ethical guidelines and standards that can help you find your way