The Nairobi Summit and Reproductive Justice: Unmet Needs for People with Infertility.

The Nairobi Summit, held in November 2019 and convened by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, claims to have represented "all nations and peoples, and all segments" of society during its high-level conference. The overall aim of the summit was to mobilize political will and financial commitments that are urgently needed to "finally and fully" implement the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action. Despite the recommendation by ICPD to incorporate infertility care in reproductive health services, the new Nairobi Statement largely neglects the topic of infertility. This is particularly troublesome as infertility is a global health problem affecting between 52.6 and 72.4 million couples worldwide, with a high prevalence in low- and middle-income settings. For many people around the world, infertility constitutes an emotional, social, and financial burden, yet appropriate services directed toward preventing and addressing infertility are often inaccessible, unaffordable, or nonexistent. With the impetus of a wider reproductive justice community, we call for the integration of infertility into global reproductive health research and practice, urging policy makers, practitioners, researchers, activists, and funders worldwide to bring focused attention to addressing challenges posed by a lack of safe, effective, and dignified fertility management among those in need.

'Your country needs you': the ethics of allocating staff to high-risk clinical roles in the management of patients with COVID-19.

As the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on health service delivery, health providers are modifying care pathways and staffing models in ways that require health professionals to be reallocated to work in critical care settings. Many of the roles that staff are being allocated to in the intensive care unit and emergency department pose additional risks to themselves, and new policies for staff reallocation are causing distress and uncertainty to the professionals concerned. In this paper, we analyse a range of ethical issues associated with changes to staff allocation processes in the face of COVID-19. In line with a dominant view in the medical ethics literature, we claim, first, that no individual health professional has a specific, positive obligation to treat a patient when doing so places that professional at risk of harm, and so there is a clear ethical tension in any reallocation process in this context. Next, we argue that the changing asymmetries of health needs in hospitals means that careful consideration needs to be given to a stepwise process for deallocating staff from their usual duties. We conclude by considering how a justifiable process of reallocating professionals to high-risk clinical roles should be configured once those who are 'fit for reallocation' have been identified. We claim that this process needs to attend to three questions that we consider in detail: (1) how the choice to make reallocation decisions is made, (2) what justifiable models for reallocation might look like and (3) what is owed to those who are reallocated.

Clinical Ethics Needs Assessment: Adapting Clinical Ethics to a Population Health Program.

The clinical encounter between providers and patients is insufficient: most factors influencing health outcomes occur outside the clinic. Community Health Needs Assessments address this insufficiency via collaboration between hospitals and the communities they serve to address systemic sociological-economic variables impacting health outcomes. Considering this, why are Health Care Ethics Consultation (HCEC) services limited to the clinical setting? We can cultivate better ethics outcomes by addressing systemic sociological-economic factors that cause recurring ethics issues in the hospital. In this article, I argue for the need for a Community Ethics Needs Assessment (CENA). CENA is a novel concept; thus, this article is exploratory. I argue for the necessity of a CENA and, more importantly, outline what methodology a CENA would use to both identify and address an ethics need.

Beyond the Belmont Principles: A Community-Based Approach to Developing an Indigenous Ethics Model and Curriculum for Training Health Researchers Working with American Indian and Alaska Native Communities.

Individuals responsible for carrying out research within their diverse communities experience a critical need for research ethics training materials that align with community values. To improve the capacity to meet local human subject protections, we created the research Ethics Training for Health in Indigenous Communities (rETHICS), a training curriculum aligned within American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) context, culture, and community-level ethical values and principles. Beginning with the Belmont Report and the Common Rule that defines research with human subjects (46 CFR 45), the authors convened three different expert panels (N = 37) to identify Indigenous research values and principles common across tribal communities. The resulting culturally grounded curriculum was then tested with 48 AI/AN individuals, 39 who also had recorded debriefing interviews. Using a thematic analysis, we coded the qualitative feedback from the expert panel discussions and the participant debriefings to assess content validity. Participants identified five foundational constructs needed to ensure cultural-grounding of the AI/AN-specific research training curriculum. These included ensuring that the module was: (a) framed within an AI/AN historical context; (b) reflected Indigenous moral values; (c) specifically linked AI/AN cultural considerations to ethical procedures; (d) contributed to a growing Indigenous ethics; and (e) provided Indigenous-based ethics tools for decision making. Using community-based consultation and feedback from participants led to a culturally grounded training curriculum that teaches research ethical principles and procedures for conducting research with AI/ANs. The curriculum is available for free and the community-based process used can be adapted for other cultural groups.

Percepção dos profissionais para implantação do teste rápido para HIV e Sífilis na Rede Cegonha / The professional's perception for the implantation of the rapid test for HIV and Syphilis in Rede Cegonha / La percepción de los profesionales para la implantación de la prueba rápida para VIH y Sífilis en la Rede Cegonha

O artigo investiga a avaliação dos profissionais da Atenção Primária (AP) sobre a implantação do aconselhamento e do teste rápido de HIV e Sífilis na Rede Cegonha (RC). Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo, descritivo e exploratório, no qual foram realizadas 13 entrevistas semiestruturadas com profissionais da AP, analisadas a partir da análise temática. Os resultados apontam a falta de conhecimento dos profissionais em relação às inovações da RC na AP. Os profissionais receberam capacitações referentes à testagem rápida, porém o matriciamento foi considerado inexistente. A solicitação do teste rápido das gestantes é realizada de forma compulsória. O aconselhamento, quando presente, é restrito ao pré-teste de HIV e outras Infecções Sexualmente Transmissíveis (IST), tendo caráter informativo, desconsiderando as especificidades da gestação. Indica-se a necessidade de se refletir sobre a autonomia das mulheres durante o pré-natal e o aconselhamento, espaço este que pode ser repensado como um momento de fortalecimento e acolhimento.

The article investigates the evaluation of the Primary Health Care (PHC) professionals about the implementation of the HIV and Syphilis rapid test in the care policy for pregnant women (CPPW). This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study, which were conducted 13 semi-structured interviews with professionals, and analyzed from the thematic analysis. The results show a lack of knowledge of professionals about the innovations of CPPW in PHC. The professional received trainings for the rapid test, but the matricial support, with longitudinal supervision with specialized professionals, was considered inexistent. The test request of the pregnant women is released of compulsory form. Counseling is restricted to the pre-test of HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), and just informative, disregarding the specifics of pregnancy. It is necessary to rethink the women's autonomy during the prenatal care and counseling and to construction these spaces as a moment of empowerment and welcoming.

El artículo investiga la evaluación de los profesionales de la Atención Primaria (AP) en relación a la implantación del asesoramiento y prueba rápida del VIH y Sífilis en la red de atención a las gestantes. El presente estudio es cualitativo, descriptivo y exploratorio, en el cual se realizaron 13 entrevitas semiestructuradas con los profesionales de la AP, analizadas a partir del análisis temático. Los resultados señalan la falta de conocimiento de los profesionales en relación a las innovaciones del RC en la AP. Los profesionales recibieron capacitaciones referentas a la prueba rápida del VIH, pero la supervisión longitudinal de los casos fue considerado inexistente. La solicitud de la prueba rápida de VIH y otras Infecciones Sexualmente Transmissibles (ISTs) a las gestantes se realiza de forma obligatoria. El asesoramiento, cuando presente, se limita al pre-test del VIH y otras ISTs, teniendo carácter informativo, desconsiderando las especificidades de la gestación. Se indica que es necesario repensar la autonomía de las mujeres durante el prenatal y el asesoramiento, para que este sea un espacio de empoderamiento y acogida para las mujeres.

El etiquetado de pacientes en atención primaria. El caso de la cronicidad / Labelling chronically ill patients in primary care

No disponible

Reflexiones del Grupo de Ética de CAMFiC al editorial de atención a la cronicidad / Reflections Group CAMFiC ètica of editorial attention to chronicity

No disponible

Improving public health by respecting autonomy: using social science research to enfranchise vulnerable prison populations.

It is widely recognised that prisoners constitute a vulnerable population that is subject to numerous health inequalities and merits special protection. Improving prisoners' access to healthcare by ensuring adherence to the principle of equivalence has been the main focus of efforts to ensure that their health is not jeopardised. However, another means of respecting prisoners' autonomy and improving their health is to involve them (and prison staff) in social science research within prisons. Such research not only produces valuable data which can be used to assess whether the principle of equivalence is being respected; it also enfranchises prisoners by allowing them to air concerns about perceived ill-treatment and influence their environment. If prison authorities enable such research and adjust policy accordingly, both they and prisoners will benefit from the increased level of respect for prisoners' autonomy, and the improvements in individual and public health that flow from this. Conducting social science research in prisons enables the creation of a virtuous cycle of respect that makes prisons safer and healthier places.

Health-care needs and shared decision-making in priority-setting.

In this paper we explore the relation between health-care needs and patients' desires within shared decision-making (SDM) in a context of priority setting in health care. We begin by outlining some general characteristics of the concept of health-care need as well as the notions of SDM and desire. Secondly we will discuss how to distinguish between needs and desires for health care. Thirdly we present three cases which all aim to bring out and discuss a number of queries which seem to arise due to the double focus on a patient's need and what that patient desires. These queries regard the following themes: the objectivity and moral force of needs, the prediction about what kind of patients which will appear on a micro level, implications for ranking in priority setting, difficulties regarding assessing and comparing benefits, and implications for evidence-based medicine.

Building clinical trial priorities at the University of Rwanda.

After the genocide in Rwanda, the country's healthcare system collapsed. Remarkable gains have since been made by the state to provide greater clinical service capacity and expand health policies that are grounded on locally relevant evidence. This commentary explores the challenges faced by Rwanda in building an infrastructure for clinical trials. Through local examples, we discuss how a clinical trial infrastructure can be constructed by (1) building educational capacity; (2) encouraging the testing of relevant interventions using appropriate and cost-effective designs; and, (3) promoting ethical and regulatory standards. The future is bright for clinical research in Rwanda and with a renewed appetite for locally generated evidence it is necessary that we discuss the challenges and opportunities in drawing up a clinical trials agenda.

"Measuring up" to ethical standards in service delivery to college students on the Autism Spectrum: A practical application of Powell's model for ethical practices in clinical phonetics and linguistics.

This paper examined an interdisciplinary college-based support programme, the Communication Coaching Program (CCP), designed for students diagnosed on the autism spectrum in light of six ethical constructs described by Powell. Collecting data to monitor the successes and ongoing needs of individual participants in the programme is of vital importance, of course, but only addresses a portion of the efficacy question. In addition, the authors, who co-direct the programme and represent different professional expertise and perspectives, recognize the importance of determining whether their evolving intervention model has also been successful in meeting the ethical standards of their respective professions. Careful review of the 4 years of the CCP's operation in terms of ethical constructs has yielded evidence that the CCP, although based on sound principles of theory and scholarship, should be further individualized to meet the particular needs of participants diagnosed with deficits in social communication and executive functioning skills.

Who should get the last PICU bed?

Administrators sometimes face ethical dilemmas about the allocation of institutional resources. One such situation is when elective surgery cases require reserved ICU beds and the ICU is full. Such situations arise frequently in children's hospitals today. They are sometimes complicated by questions about whether every patient in the ICU belongs there. We present such a situation and responses from Mark Del Becarro, Vice President for Medical Affairs at Seattle Children's Hospital; Aaron Wightman, a nephrology fellow and bioethicist at Seattle Children's Hospital; and Emily Largent, a doctoral student in the joint JD/PhD Program in Health Policy at Harvard University.

Health-care professionals' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours relating to patient capacity to consent to treatment: an integrative review.

This integrative review aims to provide a synthesis of research findings of health-care professionals' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours relating to patient capacity to consent to or refuse treatment within the general hospital setting. Search strategies included relevant health databases, hand searching of key journals, 'snowballing' and expert recommendations. The review identified various knowledge gaps and attitudinal dispositions of health-care professionals, which influence their behaviours and decision-making in relation to capacity to consent processes. The findings suggest that there is tension between legal, ethical and professional standards relating to the assessment of capacity and consent within health care. Legislation and policy guidance concerning capacity assessment processes are lacking, and this may contribute to inconsistencies in practice.

Ethical dilemmas related to predictions and warnings of impending natural disaster.

Scientists and policy makers issuing predictions and warnings of impending natural disaster are faced with two major challenges, that is, failure to warn and issuing a false alarm. The consequences of failure to warn can be serious for society overall, for example, significant economic losses, heavy infrastructure and environmental damage, large number of human casualties, and social disruption. Failure to warn can also have serious for specific individuals, for example, legal proceedings against disaster research scientists, as in the L'Aquila earthquake affair. The consequences of false alarms may be less serious. Nevertheless, false alarms may violate the principle of nonmaleficence (do no harm), affect individual autonomy (eg, mandatory evacuations), and may result in the "cry wolf" effect. Other ethical issues associated with natural disasters include the promotion of global justice through international predisaster technical assistance and postdisaster aid. Social justice within a particular country is promoted through greater postdisaster aid allocation to the less privileged.

Health as a basic human need: would this be enough?

Although the value of health is universally agreed upon, its definition is not. Both the WHO and the UN define health in terms of well-being. They advocate a globally shared responsibility that all of us - states, international organizations, pharmaceutical corporations, civil society, and individuals - bear for the health (that is, the well-being) of the world's population. In this paper I argue that this current well-being conception of health is troublesome. Its problem resides precisely in the fact that the well-being conception of health, as an all-encompassing label, does not properly distinguish between the different realities of health and the different demands of justice, which arise in each case. In addressing responsibilities related to the right to health, we need to work with a more differentiated vocabulary, which can account for these different realities. A crucial distinction to bear in mind, for the purposes of moral deliberation and the crafting of political and legal institutions, is the difference between basic and non-basic health needs. This distinction is crucial because we have presumably more stringent obligations and rights in relation to human needs that are basic, as they justify stronger moral claims, than those grounded on non-basic human needs. It is important to keep this moral distinction in mind because many of the world's problems regarding the right to health relate to basic health needs. By conflating these needs with less essential ones, we risk confusing different types of moral claims and weakening the overall case for establishing duties regarding the right to health. There is, therefore, a practical need to reevaluate the current normative conception of health so that it distinguishes, within the broad scope of well-being, between what is basic and what is not. My aim here is to shed light onto this distinction and to show the need for this differentiation. I do so, first, by providing, on the basis of David Miller's concept of basic needs, an account of basic health needs and, secondly, by mounting a defense of the basic needs approach to the right to health, arguing against James Griffin who opposes the basic needs approach.

Patients and borders, money and mission: responding to medically needy persons from other countries who lack financial resources.

When financially impoverished persons from resource-poor countries travel to resource-rich countries to seek medical treatment, health-care professionals and hospital administrators must decide how to respond. These financially impoverished "medical travelers" are medically no different from financially impoverished citizens or immigrants, but their national residence and purpose of travel may cause them to be seen as having a lower degree of standing within the communities that hospitals are expected to serve. In responding to such persons, health-care professionals and administrators encounter tension between the mission-driven intention to provide care and a budget-driven intention to protect operating margins. Responses require practical wisdom and a readiness to wrestle with tensions related to objectives (charitable versus financial), role-specific obligations (clinicians versus administrators), and contrasting moral frameworks. There are also challenges of reconciling plural moral values, setting moral priorities, and considering whether national borders should constrain our view of persons as neighbors. Finding a way forward amidst many tensions is hard moral work, but it may be facilitated by granting a moral imperative to physical proximity, respecting role-fidelity among clinicians and administrators, furthering candid moral dialogue, and promoting a presumption to treat whenever it is feasible to do so.

Gender-related differences in the human rights needs of patients with mental illness.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with mental illness commonly experience human rights violations while seeking to meet their basic needs. There is lack of research in developing countries on gender-related differences in human rights needs. PURPOSE: This study investigated gender differences in perceived human rights needs at the family and community levels in individuals with mental illness in India. METHODS: This descriptive study surveyed 100 asymptomatic individuals with mental illness at a tertiary care center. Subject selection employed a random sampling method. Data were collected using face-to-face interviews based on a structured needs assessment questionnaire. Data were analyzed and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: Subjects enjoyed a satisfactory level of fulfillment in the physical dimension of human rights needs, which included food, housing, and clothing. Men expressed lower satisfaction than women with perceived human rights needs fulfillment in the emotional dimension. This included fear of family members (χ = 9.419, p < .024) and being called derogatory names (χ = 8.661, p < .034). Women expressed lower satisfaction than men with perceived human rights needs fulfillment in social and ethical dimensions. The former included freedom to leave the home (χ = 11.277, p < .010), and the latter included sexual abuse by family members (χ = 9.491, p < .019). Men felt more discriminated than women due to perceptions of mental illness in the community domain (χ = 10.197, p < .037). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that family members and communities need to be educated regarding the human rights needs of people with mental illness and that legislation must be strengthened to meet the human rights needs of this disadvantaged population.

Considering ethics in community eye health planning: perspectives from an existing model.

Despite the widespread acceptance of the principles of the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978 and the subsequent amendments, health for all has remained a distant dream in many parts of the developing world. Concerns such as the economic efficiency of health systems and their reach and coverage have dominated discussions of public health, with ethics remaining at best a shadowy set of assumptions or at worst completely ignored. Similarly, questions of ethics have been taken for granted and rarely addressed directly in the design of public health models across sectors and are rarely explicitly addressed. This paper uses the experience of the L V Prasad Eye Institute's (LVPEI) pyramidal model of eye healthcare delivery to explore ethical issues in the design and implementation of public health interventions. The LVPEI model evolved over time from its beginnings as a tertiary care centre to a network that spans all levels of eye care service delivery from the community through primary and secondary levels. A previously published analytical framework is applied to this model and the utility of this framework as well as the ethics of the LVPEI model are interrogated. An analytical and prescriptive framework is then evolved that could be used to build in and evaluate ethics in other public health delivery models.