Bio-Ethics and One Health: A Case Study Approach to Building Reflexive Governance.

Area of Science:

• One Health
• Bioethics
• Public Health Surveillance

Background:

• Ethical surveillance programs for One Health issues like antibiotic resistance are complex.
• Governance of health surveillance necessitates attention to data ethics, knowledge sharing, trust, accountability, transparency, and empowerment ethics.
• Reflexive governance employs critical thinking to establish criteria for governing actions towards a better future.

Purpose of the Study:

• To lay foundations for a methodological framework in empirical bioethics for reflexive governance in One Health.
• To propose a hybridization of collective deliberation and expert evaluation methods.
• To empower individuals and associations in dialogue with society through a community-based action-ethics methodology.

Main Methods:

• Application of a methodological framework to a case study on data sharing systems.
• Utilizing a feasibility study from Québec, Canada (2018-2021) for an animal health antibiotic use surveillance program.
• Synthesizing an alternative governance model using adaptive cycle and governance techniques, rooted in empowerment.

Main Results:

• Development of a new research and design (R&D) practice linking operation and innovation.
• Bridging gaps between Reflexive, Evaluative, and Deliberative reasonings.
• Intellectualizing democratizing critical thinking locally through collective and social ethics.

Conclusions:

• A communitarian and pragmatic approach can enhance feasibility studies and collaboration via public-private-academic partnerships.
• The proposed process reassembles the One Health paradigm through global bioethics.
• Establishes pragmatic ethics to bridge the gap between individuals and the ecosystem.