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Healthcare
Special Issues
Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources
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Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2016) | Viewed by 85517

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Sampath Parthasarathy
*
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, 8829 Kastler street, Orlando, FL 32727, USA
Interests: atherosclerosis; heart failure mechanisms; cardiovascular pharmacology; cardiovascular nutrition; fatty acids; lipids and lipoproteins; oxidative stress and antioxidants; endometriosis; macrophages
* Deceased, 1 December 2020.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will investigate some of the most interesting, important, and complex intersections of healthcare ethics and environmental ethics. Ecological factors that situate us to be healthy or ill get little attention in healthcare ethics, despite that the most important material conditions of health are those we gather from nature and must hold in common. Clean water, clean air, food, habitable climates, quiet, beauty of wild places, and even immunity, for example, are a few of the resources we steward together. The ethical landscape of commons stewardship is traversed by individuals, families, communities, corporations, and governments, yet we rarely acknowledge how critically our collective performance influences nature’s capacity to meet our needs. How well we behave as humans in the ecologies we occupy with other living things and how well we repair and structure our spaces, places, and policies to support life will dictate the duration and quality of our health over the short- and long-term.

This Special Issue seeks to explore questions such as but not necessarily limited to these:

  • Which features of ethical deliberation about healthcare and the environment are most in need of transformation and why?
  • How ought we go about the project of transforming public debates to generate innovation in our ethical approaches to health and ecological stewardship?
  • Which ethical values are most critical for thinking powerfully about our obligations as individuals and as collectives to motivate conditions that support health?
  • Which ethical values, critical frameworks, or theoretical approaches are most helpful in negotiating tension among individual well-being, community well-being, and ecological well-being?
  • What are ethical value-based strategies for weighing short-term industrial and economic gains against short- and long-term consequences for health and ecology?

Prof. Dr. Sampath Parthasarathy
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.


Keywords

  • air quality
  • biodiversity
  • bioethics
  • biophilia
  • climate change
  • communitarianism
  • conservation
  • conservation psychology
  • ecology
  • energy
  • environmental ethics
  • environmental health
  • environmental justice
  • environmental psychology
  • environmental racism
  • food supply
  • global health
  • health determinants
  • health justice
  • healthcare ethics
  • land management
  • noise pollution
  • occupational health
  • pollution
  • population health
  • public health
  • solidarity
  • stewardship
  • water management
  • water quality

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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586 KiB  
Article
Justice and Equity Implications of Climate Change Adaptation: A Theoretical Evaluation Framework
by Melanie Boeckmann and Hajo Zeeb
Healthcare 2016, 4(3), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare4030065 - 07 Sep 2016
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 9023
Abstract
Climate change affects human health, and climate change adaptation aims to reduce these risks through infrastructural, behavioral, and technological measures. However, attributing direct human health effects to climate change adaptation is difficult, causing an ethical dilemma between the need for evidence of strategies [...] Read more.
Climate change affects human health, and climate change adaptation aims to reduce these risks through infrastructural, behavioral, and technological measures. However, attributing direct human health effects to climate change adaptation is difficult, causing an ethical dilemma between the need for evidence of strategies and their precautionary implementation before such evidence has been generated. In the absence of conclusive evidence for individual adaptation strategies, alternative approaches to the measurement of adaptation effectiveness need to be developed. This article proposes a theoretical framework and a set of guiding questions to assess effects of adaptation strategies on seven domains of health determinants, including social, economic, infrastructure, institutional, community, environmental, and cultural determinants of health. Its focus on advancing gender equity and environmental justice concurrently with the implementation of health-related adaptation could serve as a template for policymakers and researchers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources)
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389 KiB  
Article
What Are the Ethical Issues Facing Global-Health Trainees Working Overseas? A Multi-Professional Qualitative Study
by James D. Harrison, Tea Logar, Phuoc Le and Marcia Glass
Healthcare 2016, 4(3), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare4030043 - 13 Jul 2016
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 9319
Abstract
The aim of this study was to identify global health ethical issues that health professional trainees may encounter during electives or placements in resource-limited countries. We conducted a qualitative study involving focus groups and an interview at the University of California San Francisco. [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to identify global health ethical issues that health professional trainees may encounter during electives or placements in resource-limited countries. We conducted a qualitative study involving focus groups and an interview at the University of California San Francisco. Participants were multi-professional from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy and had experience working, or teaching, as providers in resource-limited countries. Eighteen participants provided examples of ethical dilemmas associated with global-health outreach work. Ethical dilemmas fell into four major themes relating to (1) cultural differences (informed consent, truth-telling, autonomy); (2) professional issues (power dynamics, training of local staff, corruption); (3) limited resources (scope of practice, material shortages); (4) personal moral development (dealing with moral distress, establishing a moral compass, humility and self awareness). Three themes (cultural differences, professional issues, limited resources) were grouped under the core category of “external environmental and/or situational issues” that trainees are confronted when overseas. The fourth theme, moral development, refers to the development of a moral compass and the exercise of humility and self-awareness. The study has identified case vignettes that can be used for curriculum content for global-health ethics training. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources)
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Review

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166 KiB  
Review
Ethical Issues Surrounding End-of-Life Care: A Narrative Review
by Sameera Karnik and Amar Kanekar
Healthcare 2016, 4(2), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare4020024 - 05 May 2016
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 26153
Abstract
End-of-life care decision making carries paramount importance due to the advancements in medical sciences. Since medical science has evolved over the time and now has a potentiality to reshape the circumstances during death and in turn prolong lives, various ethical issues surround end-of-life [...] Read more.
End-of-life care decision making carries paramount importance due to the advancements in medical sciences. Since medical science has evolved over the time and now has a potentiality to reshape the circumstances during death and in turn prolong lives, various ethical issues surround end-of-life care. The purpose of this narrative review is to discuss issues such as autonomous decision making, importance of advance directives, rationing of care in futile treatments and costs involved in providing end-of-life care. Even though much progress has been made in this area continued advancement in medical science demands further research into this topic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources)
183 KiB  
Review
Sustainability as an Ethical Principle: Ensuring Its Systematic Place in Professional Nursing Practice
by Annette Riedel
Healthcare 2016, 4(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare4010002 - 30 Dec 2015
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 6998
Abstract
Alongside the central focus on the persons requiring nursing care in professional nursing practice, the perspective of the sustainability of interventions and the use of materials (for example, nursing aids and hygiene articles) is gaining prominence in nursing decision-making processes. This contribution makes [...] Read more.
Alongside the central focus on the persons requiring nursing care in professional nursing practice, the perspective of the sustainability of interventions and the use of materials (for example, nursing aids and hygiene articles) is gaining prominence in nursing decision-making processes. This contribution makes the principle of sustainability concrete and delineates its importance in the context of professional nursing practice and decision-making. It further suggests the development of an ethical policy in order to systematically ensure that sustainability has a place in ethical reflection and decision-making, and describes the elements involved. Finally, a synthesis is made between the importance of the principle of sustainability, suggested ethical policies (system of ethical reflection) as they affect nursing practice and professional reflection, decision-making, and practice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources)

Other

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1082 KiB  
Discussion
The Interacting Axes of Environmental, Health, and Social Justice Cumulative Impacts: A Case Study of the Blueberry River First Nations
by Maya K Gislason and Holly K Andersen
Healthcare 2016, 4(4), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare4040078 - 18 Oct 2016
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 6855
Abstract
We consider the case of intensive resource extractive projects in the Blueberry River First Nations in Northern British Columbia, Canada, as a case study. Drawing on the parallels between concepts of cumulative environmental and cumulative health impacts, we highlight three axes along which [...] Read more.
We consider the case of intensive resource extractive projects in the Blueberry River First Nations in Northern British Columbia, Canada, as a case study. Drawing on the parallels between concepts of cumulative environmental and cumulative health impacts, we highlight three axes along which to gauge the effects of intensive extraction projects. These are environmental, health, and social justice axes. Using an intersectional analysis highlights the way in which using individual indicators to measure impact, rather than considering cumulative effects, hides the full extent by which the affected First Nations communities are impacted by intensive extraction projects. We use the case study to contemplate several mechanisms at the intersection of these axes whereby the negative effects of each not only add but also amplify through their interactions. For example, direct impact along the environmental axis indirectly amplifies other health and social justice impacts separately from the direct impacts on those axes. We conclude there is significant work still to be done to use cumulative indicators to study the impacts of extractive industry projects—like liquefied natural gas—on peoples, environments, and health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources)
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584 KiB  
Concept Paper
Finding Common Ground: Environmental Ethics, Social Justice, and a Sustainable Path for Nature-Based Health Promotion
by Viniece Jennings, Jessica Yun and Lincoln Larson
Healthcare 2016, 4(3), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare4030061 - 25 Aug 2016
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 15397
Abstract
Decades of research have documented continuous tension between anthropocentric needs and the environment’s capacity to accommodate those needs and support basic human welfare. The way in which society perceives, manages, and ultimately utilizes natural resources can be influenced by underlying environmental ethics, or [...] Read more.
Decades of research have documented continuous tension between anthropocentric needs and the environment’s capacity to accommodate those needs and support basic human welfare. The way in which society perceives, manages, and ultimately utilizes natural resources can be influenced by underlying environmental ethics, or the moral relationship that humans share with the natural world. This discourse often centers on the complex interplay between the tangible and intangible benefits associated with nonhuman nature (e.g., green space), both of which are relevant to public health. When ecosystem degradation is coupled with socio-demographic transitions, additional concerns related to distributional equity and justice can arise. In this commentary, we explore how environmental ethics can inform the connection between the ecosystem services from green space and socially just strategies of health promotion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources)
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438 KiB  
Concept Paper
From a Reductionist to a Holistic Approach in Preventive Nutrition to Define New and More Ethical Paradigms
by Anthony Fardet and Edmond Rock
Healthcare 2015, 3(4), 1054-1063; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare3041054 - 28 Oct 2015
Cited by 32 | Viewed by 10322
Abstract
This concept paper intends to define four new paradigms for improving nutrition research. First, the consequences of applying a reductionist versus a holistic approach to nutrition science will be discussed. The need for a more focused preventive nutrition approach, as opposed to a [...] Read more.
This concept paper intends to define four new paradigms for improving nutrition research. First, the consequences of applying a reductionist versus a holistic approach to nutrition science will be discussed. The need for a more focused preventive nutrition approach, as opposed to a curative one, will then be presented on the basis of the ‘healthy core metabolism’ concept. This will lead us to propose a new classification of food products based on processing for future epidemiological studies. As a result of applying the holistic approach, health food potential will be redefined based on both food structure and nutrient density. These new paradigms should help define a more ethical preventive nutrition for humans to improve public recommendations while preserving the environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources)
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