Public Health Ethics

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH ETHICS
Public Health Ethics
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1PUBLIC HEALTH ETHICS
Explain what public health ethics is, how and why it is different from clinical ethics, and
the relationship between ethics and evidence.
Public health ethics is defined as the justifications, foundations and actions that are
considered ethically and morally fair, for the collective benefit of the public (1). The promotion
of health is systematically processed, prioritized and justified with ethical principle, scientific
justifications and evaluation of stakeholders keeping intact the liberty of the people and
overcoming the barriers (2). Clinical ethics is defined as the discipline in the healthcare industry,
which helps healthcare professionals to analyse and resolve ethical conundrums during clinical
practice. It encourages the healthcare professionals to consider the individual perspective of the
patients and promotes reflective practice, which minimizes patient risk. Clinical ethics is more
conformed to the interactions between the healthcare provider and the patient, whereas, the
public health ethics is dealt among the an organization and the community (3). Clinical ethics is
more concentrated on the individual needs whereas the public health is more generalised for the
population. Clinical ethics is more focussed on the sovereignty, non-beneficence, benevolence
and justice for the patient but the public health ethics is more bent towards the inter-alliance,
inter-community trust, congruity as well as justice for the public. It can be said in a way that
clinical ethics is a part of public health ethics. Providing health promotion to reduce the change
of exposure to infectious diseases. Creating surveillance, globally to monitor potential risk
factors and prevention of health threats. The importance of evidence is support the rationale for
the health promoting campaigns. There are two major types of evidence, mainly Normative and
Descriptive evidences. The descriptive evidences rely on statistical, qualititative and quantitative
data to derive a statement, whereas, normative evidences are generalised opinions or accepted
norms about a subject matter. Normative evidence is less preferred than descriptive evidences in

2PUBLIC HEALTH ETHICS
the promotion of public health because the aggregation of statistical data and evaluation of the
problem is not provided in the former method of evidence. It is important to assess the effect of
consequentialism on the promotion of public health. This concept conforms the public health
policies keeping the good public health outcome intact. Consequentialism is affected by the
overall health and well being of the population and the larger impact it has on the society as a
community. Public health is also important to assess the utilitarianism in the society. This
utilitarianism concept affects the health and promotion of one affects that of the other. In clinical
ethics, this concept is not considered as those policies only regard individual care. Public health
community essentially influences the clinical health as a form of community effect, which
determines the clinical practices and planning in the healthcare industry (4). Public health
programs also structures the policy and safety guidelines in the clinical acre setting and provide
equal rights to healthcare among the general population. The CDC has now developed minority
health improving strategies whose purpose is to utilise public health ethics to minimise the
disparities among the health status, accessibility and benefits among the general population
covering minority communities. In summation, the public health is a epidemiological care
whereas, clinical health is individualistic.
Should obesity screening be introduced in schools as part of an early intervention approach
to reducing obesity in the population? Why or why not?
Obesity is a major problem that is devouring the population slowly. It is estimated by
World Health Organization that 340 million children aged from 5-19 years are obese, as of 2016
(5). Obesity induces a lot of health risk factors and causes chronic diseases that might harm the
affected person. It is important to assess the potency for obesity in children to prevent the those
health risks. Obesity screening is a form of detection method which asses the height, weight,