Social Justice and Public Health

Abstract

Abstract The theory of social justice that we have thus far presented is not designed to focus solely on one aspect of human welfare, public policy, or social organization. Quite the opposite. We have built our account around six distinct dimensions of well-being, each of which illuminates a uniquely salient moral consideration. Although distinct, these different dimensions often have common social determinants and are frequently intertwined in complex webs of disadvantage and privilege. Our theory thus emphasizes the importance of keeping all the dimensions in view when evaluating the justice of social organizations and public policies. Although health figures prominently in our theory as one of these six dimensions, it is no more or less important than the others. At the same time, as we noted in chapter 1, we came to develop our theory out of an original concern with questions of justice in public health and health policy, questions which have never quite left us. Accordingly, we turn now to some of the health-specific implications of our theory. In this chapter, our focus is on the social institution of public health. In chapter 5, we examine the implications of our account for a central issue in health policy and public health: how justly to organize and finance medical care services. In chapters 6 and 7 we examine the ways our theory informs the problem of how to justly set priorities among competing public health programs and health care policies.