Ethics

This summary, produced in English and in French by the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP), was originally intended to provide francophone readers with easy access to the key information from the original published article, a literature review of the state of ethics education in schools of public health. We have also produced this English-language version for those who wish a short summary of the findings from the literature review. The authors of the review are…

The purpose of this document is to equip public health actors to conduct a critical and nuanced ethical analysis of public health policies or population-based interventions accused or suspected of being paternalistic.

To deepen understanding of paternalism and help public health actors conduct this type of ethical analysis, this document has been structured around five main questions: 

The literature in public health ethics and other key documents exhibit a wide variety of values that offer many potential guides for assessing or orienting action. Among these many values, which ones are most relevant for conducting ethical analysis of public health actions? And are they valid for all public health interventions, or only some? How are these values defined?

This Framework of Values to Support Ethical Analysis of Public Health Actions was produced precisely to address…

In 2013, after 10 years of existence, the Comité d’éthique de santé publique [Public Health Ethics Committee] (CESP) felt compelled to review the experience that it had developed with regard to its specific mandate to provide ethical reviews of surveillance plans. This document summarizes all the ethical concerns identified by the Committee through the review of the different surveillance plans that were submitted to it between the time of its establishment and 2012. This summary of the…

Public health actors analyzing policy options usually try to assess and compare the expected effects of policies on the health of the population. They can take on neutral brokering roles, simply providing the best available information to decision makers, or they can also engage in advocacy-related analysis. Whatever their role, those looking at policy options often try to answer — or are asked by others to answer — questions such as the following: Which option will result in broader social…

Various social factors, such as education, income, work, living environment, housing, lifestyle and access to services, determine an individual’s state of health. These interact in varying combinations throughout the life course. Inequitable distribution of these factors, or health determinants, among groups generates considerable health differences among people within a community or a country, or between countries. The gaps, or unequal distribution of health status, linked to these…

The Romaine project offers a good illustration of all the risks of implementing major development projects in northern Quebec. The first major hydroelectric site in many years to be established so close to a small community, this project is opening the way for many other large-scale projects. Havre-Saint-Pierre is one of the eight municipalities which, along with the two Aboriginal communities of Ekuanitshit and Nutashkuan, constitute the Regional County Municipality (RCM) of Minganie on the…

One issue that has unquestionably raised concern among the public, governments, institutions and international organizations is obesity, and, in particular but not solely, childhood obesity. (World Health Organization [WHO], 2003, 2005; Delisle, 2004; Dériot, 2005). The reasons for this concern are numerous, including the fact that excess weight produces social consequences (The Canadian Medical Association [CMA], 2007, p. 6; Katzmarzyk & Janssen, 2004; National Institute of Health and…