Since public health seeks to protect the health of populations, it inevitably confronts a range of ethical challenges having to do primarily with the friction between individual freedoms and what might be perceived as governmental paternalism. This volume brings together twenty-five articles by leading thinkers in the field, writing on topics that concern both classic and novel problems. They open up new terrain in each area, including tobacco and drug control, infectious disease, environmental and occupational health, the effect of new genetics on the publics health, and the impact of social inequalities on patterns of morbidity and mortality. The volume editors offer a context for discussion with introductory essays for each of the books five sections.
Bruce Jennings is Director of Bioethics at the Center for Humans and Nature (a research institute that studies ethical and policy issues in environmental conservation, public health, and planning. He is on the faculty of the Yale University School of Public Health, New York Medical College, and the Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also a Fellow and Senior Consultant at The Hastings Center, where he worked from 1980-2006 and served as Executive Vice President from 1991 through 1999. A political scientist by training, Mr. Jennings is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. 1971) and Princeton University (M.A. 1973).
He has written and edited twenty books and has published over two hundred articles on bioethics and public policy issues. His next book, recently completed, is on ethical issues in end of life care. He is currently working on two projects involving public health, one a book on public health and political theory, and the other a book concerning ethical issues in public health emergency preparedness and planning.
For more information about his current work visit the website of the Center for Humans and Nature at www.humansandnature.org.
