Cancer, Global, Pandemic, Health, Ethics, and Social Justice: A Meditation on Some Five-Letter Words That Are Pervasive Accelerants

Abstract

In reflecting on cancers, this chapter stresses the serious social harms caused by inadequate prevention and, within the social fabric, he examines what he calls the “cancer accelerants:” water, power, money, and greed. They are four specific factors that require ethical attention. Water powerfully influences past and future health and well-being, for human beings and for the planet. Water conflicts are ethically troubling. Powers at play within the medical/industrial complex lead to further power imbalances in the social fabric, which are increased and worsened by structural racism and systemic impoverishment. Money further complicates any attempt to promote greater social justice whether one considers, on the one hand, financial interests and, on the other hand, lack of financial resources and poverty. Finally, greed poisons human and social interactions by inhibiting virtuous behaviors and choices, both at the personal and social level.