Public health ethics: Philosophical and ethical foundational issues

Abstract

In this paper, we will overview several key issues in public health ethics. To do so, we will provide an analysis of the challenges the discipline of public health raises to the prevailing, traditional way of thinking about health. In particular, we will focus on three foundational philosophical and ethical issues in the field of public health ethics, namely: the definition of the concept of “public,” the limits of public health interventions, and the ethical decision-making models proposed within the disciplined. To conclude, we will present the main public health ethical decision-making models in the literature.