Ambi+606

(AMBI 606) Social Justice and Medicine: Bioethical debate often centers upon questions of individual decision-making. Fairness, an important concept, is often presented only in connection to scarce resources, personal or cultural values, while ultimate questions of fairness --questions of social justice-- tend to be left to the realm of policy and politics. More recently, bioethicists have taken up the question of public health priorities and the social determinants of health within the bioethics domain. Scholars in public health, similarly, have not only tackled the issue of social injustice but have also tried to elucidate the ethical challenges that follow. This course aims to first raise a discussion about health and justice as large concepts. It then addresses the question of the social determinants of health and the public health infrastructure. The conclusion of the course is a discussion of discrete topics in the intersection of health and social injustice.