The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care by Jessica Pierce, Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado at Boulder Andrew Jameton, Department of Preventive and Societal Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center Oxford University Press, 2004

Abstract

As the state of the natural world declines, environmentally related health problems will increasingly shape the landscape of human health and disease. The confluence of several global trends—rapid population growth combined with an even more dramatic increase in natural resource consumption—drives ecological deterioration, and this in turn poses serious challenges to health. In the United States, medicine and bioethics have too long ignored the relevance of these global trends to health care: This groundbreaking work is a call to attention. This groundbreaking work brings bioethics and health care squarely into the twenty-first century.

The book shows how environmental decline relates to human health and, more particularly, health care practices in the United States and other industrialized countries. It outlines the environmental trends that will strongly impact health, and challenges us to see the connections between ways of practicing medicine and the very environmental problems that damage ecosystems and make people sick. In addition to philosophical analysis of the converging values of bioethics and environmental ethics, The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care offers case studies as well as a number of practical suggestions for moving health care toward sustainability. The exploration of a hypothetical Green Health Center, in particular, offers an intellectual and moral framework for talking about environmental values in health care. Engaging and challenging, this book will appeal not only to health professionals and philosophers, but also to anyone concerned about how to preserve and promote both human health and the health of the natural world.

The book is a product of the Green Health Center Project and the Exploring Bioethics Upstream Project at University of Nebraska Medical Center, supported in part by The Greenwall Foundation.

The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care
By Jessica Pierce and Andrew Jameton
Oxford University Press, 2004
ISBN 0195139038, hardback, 176 pages

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HOW TO CONTACT THE AUTHORS

Jessica Pierce, Ph.D., teaches medical ethics and environmental philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Pierce studied at Scripps College, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of Virginia. She is an avid hiker and rock climber. She is currently working on a book on the use of case studies in teaching philosophy.
piercejessica@usa.net

Andrew Jameton, Ph.D., is Professor and Head of the Section on Humanities and Law in the Department of Preventive and Societal Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Jameton studied at Harvard University, University of Washington, Case Western Reserve University, and the University of California San Francisco. He is co-founder and servers on the board of City Sprouts, an inner city community gardening project.
ajameton@unmc.edu