公共卫生伦理学的结构和若干基本论题

The Structure and Basic Topics of Public Health Ethics

讨论了作为生命伦理学学科分支的《公共卫生伦理学》的结构及其基本论题,阐述了公共卫生的伦理基础、公共卫生伦理学的基本原则、公共卫生与个人自由之间的关系等对公共卫生各领域均具有普遍意义的基本伦理问题。指出公共卫生是建立公正社会和实现社会正义的必备要素,应该以公共卫生实践中的伦理问题而不是以哪个理论作为其逻辑出发点;公共卫生工作之所以能得到伦理辩护,缘于健康是人民安康的基本层面,而人民的安康是建立公正社会的基本内容;公共卫生伦理学的基本原则应包括效用、公正、尊重、共济、相称;最后讨论公共卫生限制个人自由在伦理学上可辩护的条件。

This article discusses the structure and basic topics of public health ethics as a branch of the bioethics discipline, focusing on several basic ethical issues such as ethical basis of public health, principles of public health ethics, and the relationship between public health and individual freedom which are universal to all fields of public health. The authors point out that public health is requisite for building a just society and achieving social justice, so the logical starting point of public health ethics should be ethical issues existed in the practices of public health rather than any ethical theory. Public health can be ethically justified on the basis that health is a fundamental dimension of people＇s well-being, and people＇s well-being is an integral part of building a just society. The basic principles of public health ethics include utility, justice, respect, solidarity and proportionality. In addition, the authors finally discuss the ethically justifiable conditions for limiting individual freedom in public health.