title: Ethics and policy of medical brain drain: a review.
abstract: Health-worker migration, commonly called "medical brain drain", refers to the mass migration of trained and skilled health professionals (doctors, nurses, midwives) from low-income to high-income countries. This is currently leaving a significant number of poor countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, with critical staff shortages in the healthcare sector. A broad consensus exists that, where medical brain drain exacerbates such shortages, it is unethical, and this review presents the main arguments underpinning this view. Notwithstanding the general agreement, which policies are justifiable on ethical grounds to tackle brain drain and how best to go about implementing them remains controversial. The review offers a discussion of the specific ethical issues that have to be taken into account when deciding which policy measures to prioritise and suggests a strategy of policy implementation to address medical brain drain as a matter of urgency.
authors.affiliation: Emmy Noether-Group on Bioethics and Political Philosophy and Centre of Advanced Study in Bioeth-ics, University of MÃ¼nster, Germany; Eszter.Kollar@ukmuenster.de.
authors.forename: Eszter
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kollar
authors.forename: Alena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buyx
mesh_terms: D017954:Africa South of the Sahara; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D004989:Ethics; D006282:Health Personnel; D006280:Health Workforce; D006801:Humans; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008880:Midwifery; D009726:Nurses; D010820:Physicians; D011640:Public Policy; D013557:Switzerland