Apr 8: Global Health and the Global Economic Crisis

Global Health and the Global Economic Crisis (part of the Humanities Center Lectures series on Global Connections, Global Responsibilities), by Solomon R. Benatar, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Director of Bioethics Centre, University of Cape Town, and Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.

The evolving global financial crisis reveals both the fragile state of the global economy and the major long-term implications of an increasingly unfair global economy for global health and human flourishing. We are also at a critical juncture in world history in relation to understanding and endeavoring to counteract the adverse effects of modern life on climate change and our natural environment – which also has major implications for health. If the growing world-wide interest and apparent commitment to global health and environmental security are to have a significantly constructive impact it will be necessary for us become more deeply introspective about our value system and reconsider what needs to be done to ensure long-term and secure human flourishing in an interdependent world. It is proposed that belief in endless economic growth and emphasis on an entirely medicalized approach to health needs to be replaced by a vision of healthy human life that is achievable and sustainable for a greater proportion of the world’s population.

4:30pm in Porter Hall 100 (Gregg Hall). Free and open to the public; co-sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics and Political Philosophy (CAAEPP).

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