Taking sociology seriously: a new approach to the bioethical problems of infectious disease.
After a history of neglect, bioethicists have recently turned their attention to the topic of infectious disease. In this paper we link bioethicists' earlier neglect of infectious disease to their under-appreciation of the extent to which the problem of infectious disease is related to social factors and thus to questions of justice. We argue that a social causation of illness model - well-known to sociologists of medicine, but incompletely understood by bioethicists - will improve future bioethical analysis of issues related to infectious disease. By emphasising the relationships between social and economic structures of inequality and health, the social causation model provides a richer approach to ethical issues associated with infectious disease than the more commonly used biomedical model.
Tausig
Mark
M
Department of Sociology, University of Akron, OH 44325-1905, USA. mtausig@uakron.edu
Selgelid
Michael J
MJ
Subedi
Sree
S
Subedi
Janardan
J
D001675:Bioethics / Q000639:trends*; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D011203:Poverty; D012962:Sociology, Medical / Q000941:ethics* / Q000639:trends