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Resource on Ethics and Public Health

A teaching resource is available to those who wish to address ethical issues and public health in their teaching at the graduate, undergraduate, or continuing professional education levels. "Ethics and Public Health: Model Curriculum" offers an exciting and substantive way to approach the study of ethics, while the curriculum's electronic format ensures that it will be a work that evolves with use.

Developed under the auspices of the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) and The Hastings Center, with support from the Health Resource Services Administration and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this model curriculum grew out of a three-year process of discussions between leading researchers and educators in public health, as well as representatives of the government and the public health community. The strongest recommendation to emerge from these meetings was that an educational resource should be developed that would enhance existing public health curricula and respond to the growing interest in the study of ethical, legal and social aspects of public health policy.

The curriculum itself consists of self-contained modules, or units, each written by a leading expert, and each containing similar resources—an analysis of the ethical question at hand, several case studies with commentary for discussion, and resources for further study and research. For example, in Module 5, titled "Ethics and Infectious Disease Control: STDs, HIV, TB," Ronald Bayer, Professor of Public Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, looks at how a community's well-being can be balanced against an individual's rights to privacy when public health crises arise. The unit includes provocative case studies as well as probing discussions of such issues as paternalism and stigmatization, individual choice and social marketing. Other units include discussions of, for example, the ethics of environmental and occupational health, allocation setting, and of screening programs.

This project was assisted by ASPH staff and led by a four-member working group composed of Bruce Jennings (The Hastings Center), Jeffrey Kahn (University of Minnesota), Ana Mastroianni (University of Washington), and Lisa S. Parker (University of Pittsburgh).

The entire curriculum or individual modules can be downloaded free of charge. For more information, or to order a hardcopy of the curriculum, contact Monica Stadtler.