Liberation Theology and Public Health Ethics: The Tradition Behind Paul Farmer

Abstract

This chapter approaches Paul Farmer’s work from the lens of liberation theology in public health, particularly the activism of liberation theologians for universal healthcare coverage in Brazil, stressing health care as a human right. This liberation approach in medicine precedes Paul Farmer’s work. The text presents experiences of liberating approach to health care developed in Brazil that began before Farmer’s activism and scholarship. The author argues that Farmer can be seen as part of this liberation perspective, that he incorporated in his medical service after his reading of earlier Latin American liberation theology’s material. Hence, he brought to the US context (and English readers) a liberation approach to medicine, also present in his public discourse and practice around the world, through his own voice/hands and the actions of the organization he co-founded, Partners In Health. Doing so, Farmer helped to expand the liberation approach to public health, offering a new pluralism that mediates the dialogue between the global and the local.