Ethical issues influencing health for all beyond the year 2000

The approach of a new millennium gives us an opportunity to voice optimism about the future, the kind of optimism expressed at the 1978 Alma Ata Primary Health Conference under the slogan, "Health for All by the Year 2000." For those interested in real change, the slogan does not mean that everyone should achieve the same standards of health. Instead, it implies a resistance to anyone from the outside imposing a uniform definition of health on any country; each should allow its own definition of health to evolve and whatever level is achieved should be available "for all." This is a beautiful definition of health equity, the principle of primary healthcare.