Ethics for International Medicine: A Practical Guide for Aid Workers in Developing Countries

In recent years, international medicine has become a growth industry. International aid organizations, religious organizations, and medical schools all provide opportunities for health care workers to travel to developing countries to provide needed medical care to the world's poorest citizens.

Medical aid workers from the West encounter many challenges. They serve in settings with limited medical supplies, facilities, and personnel. Their patients speak different languages, have different cultures, and may even have different interpretations of disease. They have limited time in which to provide medical care to hundreds of people. In such circumstances, ethical dilemmas abound, and many health care practitioners, both novice and expert, are unprepared to manage them.

This volume provides medical aid workers with a method for identifying, analyzing, and resolving ethical issues within the context of international medicine. It also presents a series of cases, representative of the ethical issues they are likely to encounter, that illustrate the use of that method. Designating four areas in which good intentions may go awry because of miscommunication and misunderstanding between health care provider and patient - Medical Facts, Goals and Values, Norms, and Limitations - Dr. Wall develops an invaluable tool for individuals and health organizations seeking to serve in developing countries throughout the world.