Bioethical Insights into Values and Policy

Book excerpt: Changes in earth’s atmosphere, oceans, soil, weather patterns, and ecosystems are well documented by countless scientific disciplines. These manifestations of climate change harm public health. Given their goals and social responsibilities, influential health organizations recognize health impacts compounded by geography, social values, social determinants of health, health behaviors, and relationships between humans and environments primarily described in feminist ethics and environmental ethics. Health impacts are relevant to, but seldom addressed in bioethics, global health, public policy, or health or environmental policy. This book is the first to describe cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic factors that influence the regional significance of these impacts and frame them for bioethics and policy analyses.