Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Introduction
- 43 Global health ethics and cross-cultural considerations in bioethics
- 44 Physician participation in torture
- 45 Access to medicines and the role of corporate social responsibility: the need to craft a global pharmaceutical system with integrity
- 46 Global health and non-ideal justice
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
46 - Global health and non-ideal justice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Introduction
- 43 Global health ethics and cross-cultural considerations in bioethics
- 44 Physician participation in torture
- 45 Access to medicines and the role of corporate social responsibility: the need to craft a global pharmaceutical system with integrity
- 46 Global health and non-ideal justice
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
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 - 376Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008