This doctoral dissertation describes the uncharted conceptual, ethical and pragmatic intersections between public health ethics and the emerging discourse on disaster bioethics as public health disasters. This concept reflects public health issues with calamitous or devastating social consequences such as infectious disease outbreaks, the attendant public health impacts of natural or man-made disasters, and currently latent or low prevalence public health issues with the potential to rapidly acquire pandemic capacities. Using Ebola and pandemic influenza outbreaks, atypical drug-resistant tuberculosis and earthquakes as focal points, the dissertation argues that these issues are a type of global problems that will engender significant harm in the absence of cross-border and trans-national cooperation. Therefore, they require a global bioethical approach. To this end, the dissertation employs context-specific moral lenses to engage each of these representative problems. It thereafter uses the common threads, moral quandaries and the relational nexus around the overlapping issues to frame a global ethic as a normative lens for engaging public health disasters. The moral justification of the global ethic, it is argued, lies in its responsiveness to local, global, microbial and metaphysical realities as well as responsiveness to scientific concerns. Ultimately, the dissertation charts some of the roles that relevant local and transnational stakeholders may play in translating the global ethical framework from the sphere of concept to the arena of action.
A revised version of this dissertation has been published as a book and is available from Springer International Publishing.
","abstract_html":"<p>This doctoral dissertation describes the uncharted conceptual, ethical and pragmatic intersections between public health ethics and the emerging discourse on disaster bioethics as public health disasters. This concept reflects public health issues with calamitous or devastating social consequences such as infectious disease outbreaks, the attendant public health impacts of natural or man-made disasters, and currently latent or low prevalence public health issues with the potential to rapidly acquire pandemic capacities. Using Ebola and pandemic influenza outbreaks, atypical drug-resistant tuberculosis and earthquakes as focal points, the dissertation argues that these issues are a type of global problems that will engender significant harm in the absence of cross-border and trans-national cooperation. Therefore, they require a global bioethical approach. To this end, the dissertation employs context-specific moral lenses to engage each of these representative problems. It thereafter uses the common threads, moral quandaries and the relational nexus around the overlapping issues to frame a global ethic as a normative lens for engaging public health disasters. The moral justification of the global ethic, it is argued, lies in its responsiveness to local, global, microbial and metaphysical realities as well as responsiveness to scientific concerns. Ultimately, the dissertation charts some of the roles that relevant local and transnational stakeholders may play in translating the global ethical framework from the sphere of concept to the arena of action.</p> <p><em>A revised version of this dissertation has been published as a book and is available from <a href="https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319927640" target="_blank">Springer International Publishing</a>.</em></p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Afolabi, Michael Olusegun"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"PhD","degree_level":"One-year Embargo","degree_discipline":"Health Care Ethics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Henk ten Have","Gerard Magill","Joris Gielen"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:09:13Z","subjects":["Disasters","Drug-resistant Tuberculosis","Ebola","Global bioethics","Pandemic influenza","Public health"],"languages":["English"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/118","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Henk ten Have","Gerard Magill","Joris Gielen"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Afolabi, Michael Olusegun"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-11-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Health Care Ethics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["One-year Embargo"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["PhD"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Disasters","Drug-resistant Tuberculosis","Ebola","Global bioethics","Pandemic influenza","Public health"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/118"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This doctoral dissertation describes the uncharted conceptual, ethical and pragmatic intersections between public health ethics and the emerging discourse on disaster bioethics as public health disasters. This concept reflects public health issues with calamitous or devastating social consequences such as infectious disease outbreaks, the attendant public health impacts of natural or man-made disasters, and currently latent or low prevalence public health issues with the potential to rapidly acquire pandemic capacities. Using Ebola and pandemic influenza outbreaks, atypical drug-resistant tuberculosis and earthquakes as focal points, the dissertation argues that these issues are a type of global problems that will engender significant harm in the absence of cross-border and trans-national cooperation. Therefore, they require a global bioethical approach. To this end, the dissertation employs context-specific moral lenses to engage each of these representative problems. It thereafter uses the common threads, moral quandaries and the relational nexus around the overlapping issues to frame a global ethic as a normative lens for engaging public health disasters. The moral justification of the global ethic, it is argued, lies in its responsiveness to local, global, microbial and metaphysical realities as well as responsiveness to scientific concerns. Ultimately, the dissertation charts some of the roles that relevant local and transnational stakeholders may play in translating the global ethical framework from the sphere of concept to the arena of action.
A revised version of this dissertation has been published as a book and is available from Springer International Publishing.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Public Health Disasters: A Global Ethical Framework"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Henk ten Have","Gerard Magill","Joris Gielen"],"dc:creator":["Afolabi, Michael Olusegun"],"dc:date.available":["2019-11-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This doctoral dissertation describes the uncharted conceptual, ethical and pragmatic intersections between public health ethics and the emerging discourse on disaster bioethics as public health disasters. This concept reflects public health issues with calamitous or devastating social consequences such as infectious disease outbreaks, the attendant public health impacts of natural or man-made disasters, and currently latent or low prevalence public health issues with the potential to rapidly acquire pandemic capacities. Using Ebola and pandemic influenza outbreaks, atypical drug-resistant tuberculosis and earthquakes as focal points, the dissertation argues that these issues are a type of global problems that will engender significant harm in the absence of cross-border and trans-national cooperation. Therefore, they require a global bioethical approach. To this end, the dissertation employs context-specific moral lenses to engage each of these representative problems. It thereafter uses the common threads, moral quandaries and the relational nexus around the overlapping issues to frame a global ethic as a normative lens for engaging public health disasters. The moral justification of the global ethic, it is argued, lies in its responsiveness to local, global, microbial and metaphysical realities as well as responsiveness to scientific concerns. Ultimately, the dissertation charts some of the roles that relevant local and transnational stakeholders may play in translating the global ethical framework from the sphere of concept to the arena of action.
A revised version of this dissertation has been published as a book and is available from Springer International Publishing.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/118"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:subject":["Disasters","Drug-resistant Tuberculosis","Ebola","Global bioethics","Pandemic influenza","Public health"],"dc:title":["Public Health Disasters: A Global Ethical Framework"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Health Care Ethics"],"thesis:degree_level":["One-year Embargo"],"thesis:degree_name":["PhD"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:09:13Z"}