Institutionalising global health: a call for ethical reflection

Area of Science:

• Global Health
• Medical Ethics
• Sociology of Health

Background:

• The institutionalization of global health has introduced moral ambiguities and ethical compromises.
• The pursuit of global health equity is a contested normative and political issue, particularly within the USA.

Purpose of the Study:

• To encourage critical reflection on the ethical challenges and power dynamics within global health.
• To foster a deeper understanding of how institutional structures and standard operating procedures can undermine social justice and human rights.
• To promote questioning of dominant paradigms influencing global health practice and education.

Main Methods:

• Description of a global health course and its pedagogical approach.
• Encouraging student reflection on ethical dilemmas and systemic influences.
• Facilitating critique of socioeconomic and institutional paradigms in global health.

Main Results:

• Students are prompted to recognize the conflict between global health aspirations and institutional realities.
• The pedagogy aims to expose how self-interest can overshadow the stated goals of global health.
• A risk is identified that current popular approaches may fail to achieve structural change toward human solidarity.

Conclusions:

• Global health education needs to confront its own institutional interests and biases.
• Authentic concern for social justice requires challenging established hierarchical systems.
• More daring and critical modes of engagement are necessary to realize the ideal of global health.