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Human intellect and experience to ensure protection
of life and health
“Health care is an essential component for the maintenance
of health and well-being of both individuals and communities, and there are
socially controllable factors that reach beyond health care in affecting health
- particularly at the population level.” This was stated by Dr John H.
Bryant, senior faculty associate at the Department of International Health,
John Hopkins School of Public Health, USA and Professor Emeritus of Aga Khan
University.
Dr Bryant was addressing a symposium on “Justice in Health
Care” organised by Aga Khan University’s (AKU) Hospital Ethics Committee
on December 15, 2006.
Dr Bryant posed the question “what kinds of medical interventions
do we owe each other?” – and remarked that there are many things
we can do for each other that have important effects on the level of health
in a population and the distribution of health status in it.
The symposium was also addressed by Dr Khalid Zaheer, Associate
Professor of Islamic Studies and Ethics, Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Speaking from an Islamic perspective, he said that justice is the cornerstone
of Islamic teachings. Life is sacred, and taking the life of another human is
tantamount to taking the life of all humanity. Thus religion also teaches us
to save and preserve life. He said that God-given intellect and human experience
should be fully employed to devise means that ensure full protection of life
and health
Dr Khurshid Khowaja, Director of Nursing Services at Aga Khan
University Hospital (AKUH), said that identifying and clarifying the relevant
issues, and communication with families and other concerned individuals is an
important component of justice in health care.
Dr Sania Nishtar, President of the Islamabad-based NGO “Heartfile
Pakistan”, spoke on the concept of justice in the health policy context
and reported on the established correlation between social and health inequality.
She clarified that socio-economic and gender inequalities are major contributing
factors to the health of nations.
Dr Nishtar said that while the delivery of health services is
the responsibility of the government, a major objective of a health policy should
therefore be to mitigate socio-economic and gender inequities. She explained
in detail methods and modes for achieving such objectives, outlining specific
phases in reconfiguring the mode of health care delivery. Dr Nishtar presented
various aspects like the necessity for the State to deliver health services
as a public good, and the streamlining of public financing and provision of
services for this purpose.
In terms of the government’s responsibilities, she stated
that mechanisms need to be strengthened in order to bridge issues of accessibility
for the poor in the case of those services which cannot be delivered as a ‘public
good’. Over the longer term, work should be initialised to mainstream
social health insurance as a component of a comprehensive, broad-based social
protection strategy, inclusive of legal and policy framework concerns.
As a part of its social responsibility and commitment to the
advancement of health research and education, AKU regularly holds
seminars, symposiums and health awareness programmes to raise awareness
about health and education related issues which are of national
importance.
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