"I find myself bothered by the relationship between bioethics and public health ethics. Is it that the former focuses on individuals and the latter on communities? What is the relationship between the individual and their communities? Practically speaking, bioethics has been institutionalized in ways that emphasize individual (patient) integrity, while public health ethics has been institutionalized more recently to emphasize collective well-being and justice."
"As part of a recent workshop on environmental bioethics in Geneva, several of us mapped the various lines of theory across the field. We imagined intersecting axes (that is, more than one axis, rather than a series of sharpened wooden hewing instruments) of theory. The x-axis might represent the approach, from theoretical to practical. The y-axis might represent scale, from the individual/dyadic/biomedical to the collective/public health/ecological. The z-axis might represent scope, from deep green to anthropogenically "sustainable.""
Bioethics traditionally centers individual patient integrity while public health ethics centers collective well-being and justice. Institutionalization has accentuated those orientations: clinical bioethics emphasizes individual rights and patient-centered care, while public health ethics emphasizes population-level interventions and social justice. Environmental bioethics proposes interdependence between individuals and communities, aiming to reconcile individual integrity with collective flourishing. Intersecting theoretical axes—approach (theoretical to practical), scale (individual/dyadic/biomedical to collective/public health/ecological), and scope (deep green to anthropogenically sustainable)—help position different environmental bioethical projects. Positions range from green healthcare strategies to relational theorizing linking persons, communities, and ecosystems.
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