Public Health, Occupational Health and Epidemiology Conference

Public Health Ethics and Legalities: Professional Ethics and the Law

Understanding health intervention ethics and legalities are key to public health since they lay the groundwork for calling into question those strategies’ efficacy as well society’s fairness and appropriateness. This topic looks at file content of ethical theories and laws with special reference to the tactical challenges of public health and the dignity of individual autonomy. It intends to demonstrate how with modern day health crises being more intricate, ethical and legal concerns that go with it has to be worked out to enhance compliance and fairness.

The cornerstone of public health that shape the principle include: autonomy, justice, beneficence, as well as non-maleficence. Hence, the principles as follows which are applied when one wants to solve an ethical dilemma in the use of public health actions like vaccination and quarantines that may interfere with the autonomy of citizens. Legal moralism is most common in health measures that are overall good for the population while also rousing controversy because they may infringe on people’s rights or expectations. Here the problem requires discussion on how to reach rational ethical solutions where the public benefits are optimized while entailing minimal costs.

Legalities as used in public health refers to the legal requirements, policies or laws that are admissible in matters relating to public health domain while seeking to uphold the commission’s undertaking to uphold the public health. These subfield of health laws include the privacy laws, consent laws and health care accessibility laws which offers the legal justification for public health measures. For example, the rules governing business practices such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) create guidelines for the use of patient data making patient information more transparent while still ensuring that patient rights to privacy are also respected. Other aspects of the law that legal professionals in public health also solve, includes issues of digital health records, surveillance as well as bioethics which may require a change of laws as advancements in technology or social culture change.