Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-r5zm4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T08:28:12.566Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

46 - Global health and non-ideal justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

By
Gopal Sreenivasan
Edited by
Peter A. Singer  and
A. M. Viens
Gopal Sreenivasan
Affiliation:
Associate Professor University of Toronto, Canada
Peter A. Singer
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
A. M. Viens
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

The United Nations Development Program (2005) gave the following statistics for 2003.

Japan has a population of 127.7 million people and a per capita income of $27 967. Average life expectancy is 82 years, highest in the world.

Earth has a population of 6.3 billion people and a per capita income of $8229. Average life expectancy is 67.1 years.

Yemen has a population of 19.7 million people and a per capita income of $889. Average life expectancy is 60.6 years.

Zambia has a population of 11.3 million people and a per capita income of $877. Average life expectancy is 37.5, fifth lowest in the world.

International inequalities in life expectancy are simply staggering. Ten countries, all in sub-Saharan Africa, have average life expectancies at birth that are, like Zambia's, 25 years or more below the global average (and 40 years or more below that for Japan). In 33 countries, all but two in sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancy at birth is 15 years or more below the global average. Intuitively, these inequalities in basic life prospects seem plainly unjust. But can this intuitive conviction be vindicated by an argument? If present international inequalities in life expectancy are unjust, what obligations do rich nations – or their individual citizens – have to remedy the injustice? This chapter offers answers to both questions.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics , pp. 369 - 376
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Buchanan, A. (1987). Justice and charity. Ethics 97: 558–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, J. (1986). Routes to low mortality in poor countries. Pop Devel Rev 12: 171–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caney, S. (2005). Justice Beyond Borders. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filmer, D. and Pritchett, L. (1999). The impact of public spending on health: does money matter?Soc Sci Med 49: 1309–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gwatkin, D., Guillot, M., and Heuveline, P. (1999). The burden of disease among the global poor. Lancet 354: 586–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hobcraft, J. (1993). Women's education, child welfare, and child survival: a review of the evidence. Health Transit Rev 3: 159–75.Google Scholar
Krishnan, T. N. (1997). The route to social development in Kerala: social intermediation and public action. In Development with a Human Face, ed. Mehrotra, S. and Jolly, R.. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 204–34.Google Scholar
Leon, D. A. and Walt, G. (eds.) (2001). Poverty, Inequality, and Health: An International Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marmot, M. and Wilkinson, R. (eds.) (1999). Social Determinants of Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mehrotra, S. and Jolly, R. (eds.) (1997). Development with a Human Face. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, L. (2000). Moral Demands in Nonideal Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
OECD (2005). OECD in Figures. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.Google Scholar
Pogge, T. (2002). World Poverty and Human Rights. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Preston, S. H. (1980). Causes and consequences of mortality declines in less developed countries during the twentieth century. In Population and Economic Change in Developing Countries, ed. Easterlin, R.. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 289–360.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1999). The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sachs, J. (2005). The End of Poverty. New York: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Singer, P. (1972). Famine, affluence, and morality. Philos Public Affairs 1: 229–43.Google Scholar
Singer, P. (2002). One World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sreenivasan, G. (2002). International justice and health: a proposal. Ethics Int Affairs 16: 81–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sreenivasan, G. (2007). Health and justice in our non-ideal world. Pol Philos Econ 6: 218–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Subbarao, K. and Raney, L. (1995). Social gains from female education: a cross-national study. Econ Devel Cult Change 44: 105–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations Development Program (2001). Human Development Report 2001. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Program (2005). Human Development Report 2005. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×