[...]... the key health needs of as many as possible, within global environmental constraints 4 THE ETHICS OF ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE HEALTH CARE The move toward sustainable health care has the potential to resolve many problems of our current health- care system Health care costs, disorganization, inaccessibility, side effects, mistakes, and disappointments are already at a high level; scaling health care. .. of these chronic health policy problems Moreover, a sustainable health- care system permits a strong commitment to social justice in the United States By reducing the material scale of health care, a sustainable system will, instead of lowering public health standards, support a higher level of access to health care and public health services for more people Sustainable health care recognizes that health. .. has implications for the health of people in far-off places and in the future What level of responsibility do consumers have for the welfare of those far away? How should Americans balance the health needs of U.S citizens against the health needs of people in other countries? And how does framing responsibility globally alter the ethics conversation? For many around the world, the proposal to embrace... ecological health (as there are many moral implications of choosing to ignore environmental limits) To explore the ethical principles of sustainable health in practice, we present in Chapter 5 the idea of the Green Health Center (GHC), a hypothetical health- care institution that embodies the values of sustainable health The GHC would integrate environmental considerations into the design of its buildings,... Health Center, 61 6 At the Bedside, 82 7 Global Bioethics and Justice, 95 8 New Ways of Thinking About Bioethics, 111 Bibliography, 127 Index, 147 xiii This page intentionally left blank The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care This page intentionally left blank j The Challenge of Environmental Responsibility Signs of Trouble The foundation of human health rests on healthy, stable ecosystems... and health professionals years of work by committed and concerned people trying to offer reflective solutions to what 6 THE ETHICS OF ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE HEALTH CARE seems to be a disaster in the making We try to bring this careful thinking about the environmental crisis to bear on health care Others are also working on this challenging translation and we hope that still more will join in the. .. problem of scale The United States maintains the world's largest health- care system, spending close to half of all the money spent in the world on health care Maintaining such a large health- care system requires a large economy That economy, however, is making a substantial contribution to the decline in the state of the world's environment And environmental decline is in turn harming human health and... Disruption of global carbon and nitrogen cycles, loss of species, and pollution of air and oceans in other regions of the world are likely to affect U.S health care Moreover, Americans and others in consumption-heavy regions of the world are to some degree responsible for them How those in the First World economies use resources to lead meaningful lives, including providing themselves with health- care services,... the First World But the public health crisis is advancing among the world's relatively well-off populations as well, and the state of the global environment is critical for everyone's health What Is the Evidence? The evolution of apprehension over environmental deterioration has been recorded in snapshots by the changing concerns of the United Nations decadal summit conferences on the environment The. .. and healthy lifestyles And health care can continue to offer— and can even strengthen—its significant psychological function of providing assurance, care, and hope to those who are ill or injured Sustainable Health and Health Care To make such significant changes in our outlook on health care, we need to rethink the nature of health itself In Chapter 5, we begin to describe a more ecological concept of . class="bi x0 y0 w0 h1" alt="" The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care This page intentionally left blank The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care Jessica Pierce Andrew . The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care This page intentionally left blank j The Challenge of Environmental Responsibility Signs of Trouble The foundation of human health. States maintains the world's largest health- care system, spending close to half of all the money spent in the world on health care. Maintaining such a large health- care system requires