Ethical Challenges in Health Policy

Sorry Buddy, But Your Name Isn't on the List: Fear and the Ethics of Organ Donation in Film

Ted Callis — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:30:00 PDT

The fear of death and illness is a powerful motivator. When taking into account the ethical reasoning that drives organ transplantation and procurement practices, it is persuasive enough to sway minds and corrupt pure reason. And so this paper will uncover how fear of illness and death shape answers to the ethical questions that arise in transplant debates and how these debates are in turn raised in the ethical dilemmas portrayed by popular American films. This paper will examine recent films such as The Island, and Never Let Me Go to illustrate how the ethical dilemmas associated with organ transplantation, and the fear engendered by these depictions of it express the ethical debates of the American culture. It will determine that the shortage of available organs lies at the root of this fear, and then analyze how it inspires two general views of transplantation debates. It creates a fear that motivates the organ recipient and a fear which motivates the potential organ donor.

Sick With Fear: Popular Challenges to Scientific Authority in the Vaccine Controversies of the 21st Century

Ellen Watkins — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:30:00 PDT

In the 20th century, vaccines were heralded as one of the greatest medical inventions in history. In the late 1990’s, however, the myth of vaccine-caused autism caught fire. Despite mountains of evidence disproving the link, panicking Americans eschewed vaccines and turned against their physicians. Why did Americans turn their backs on doctors, scientists, and the health industry? This paper follows the vaccine controversy of the last thirty years, looking in particular at the relationship between science and the media. This paper analyzes the contrast between discussion of the hypothesized link in scientific circles and in popular news sources, seeking to understand how average Americans learn about scientific discoveries and why, in the case of vaccines, fear mongering celebrities and journalists were more persuasive than scientists and doctors. This study shows how the mystery of autism, American resentment of the elite, and mistrust of the government empowered the sensationalist anti-vaccine movement and sparked a fear of vaccines that went against all science and reason.

Sacrée et Inviolable: The HIV+ Mother in Ivoirian Health Policy

Amber Alaniz — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:30:00 PDT

« La personne humaine est sacrée (2)… Le domicile est inviolable. Les atteintes ou restrictions ne peuvent y être apportées que par la loi. (4) La famille constitue la cellule de base de la société. L'État assure sa protection. (5)» Constitution of La Côte d’Ivoire, Articles 2,4,5[1]

The Ivoirian national constitution, authored and enacted in July of 2000, while expressing a devotion to democratic thought (Preamble) and to the sovereignty of the individual (Article 2), also acknowledges the primacy of the Ivoirian family and collective identity as the basis of society and advances a moral duty on the part of the state to honor and protect them (Articles 4-5). The Ivoirian constitution seeks to embrace the Western tradition through its enshrinement of the human individual and its use of rationalist argument while maintaining fidelity to African ideals of human collectivism.

In this paper, I will situate the seropositive Ivoirian mother within the tensions of these philosophical commitments and demonstrate the ways in which ethical subjectivity and health status are mediated by them. I will describe some of the challenges of lactation in sub-Saharan countries. I will use exclusive breastfeeding, a PMTCT strategy, to explore the ways in which western public health, which conceives of mothers as independent rational actors, has not imagined African mothers in their collectivist context. Lastly, I will discuss new models for reproductive policy which address the unique problem of the seropositive mother in sub-Saharan Africa.

[1] From “Le people du côte”: Constitution du Côte d’Ivoire. 2000.