Abstract
In the spirit of critical reflection, we examine how the field of global health might surmount current challenges and prioritize its ethical mandate, namely to achieve, for all people, equity in health. We use the parlance of mastering deadly sins and striving for greater virtues in an effort to review what is needed to transform global health action. Global health falls prey to four main temptations: coveting silo gains, lusting for technological solutions, leaving broad promises largely unfulfilled, and boasting of narrow successes. This necessitates a change of heart: to keep faith with the promise it made, global health requires a realignment of core values and a sharper focus on the primacy of relationships with the communities it serves. Based on the literature to date, we highlight six steps to re-orienting global health action. Articulating a coherent global health agenda will come from principled action, enacted through courage and prudence in decision-making to foster people-centered systems of care over the entire lifespan.
Highlights
Global health has experienced the ‘best of times’ over the course of the past two decades
In the spirit of critical reflection, we structure this paper in terms of learning from past mistakes and prioritizing core values Á using the ethical parlance of mastering deadly sins, and striving for greater virtues
For instance, ‘deep accountability’ to fellow human beings to foster wellness, dignity, and capabilities, over and beyond efforts to tackle disease, misery, and pathologies during the span of human existence? Our ‘sins and virtues’ analogy serves to highlight both moral and relational issues Á a commitment to values and accountability to human beings - in global health’s efforts to ‘keep faith’ with a higher purpose, namely to promote fairness and wellness
Summary
In the spirit of critical reflection, we examine how the field of global health might surmount current challenges and prioritize its ethical mandate, namely to achieve, for all people, equity in health. Global health has broken faith with its core ethical mandate of addressing the root causes of poor health outcomes, falling prey to four main temptations Á coveting silo gains, lusting for technological solutions, leaving broad promises largely unfulfilled, and boasting of narrow successes. These are capital sins in the sense that they engender serious misdeeds and careless misdemeanors, and necessitate a change of heart.
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