HSNI flu.  The resurgence of untreatable TB in India, London and elsewhere.   Katrina! In 2009 in the richest country on Earth over 50 million people had no health insurance.  The rise of synthetic biology means that making new viruses and bacteria, or rebuilding old plague germs, can be done in garages.  Meanwhile, human enhancement is not science fiction, but rather front page material.  In healthcare and public health the accelerating changes in science and technology, and the globalization of human culture, have left our existing ethical frameworks far behind.  In response, the Lincoln Center has begun several innovative initiatives.  We are, for example, creating the fundamental principles, in the form of a basic workable code for responders and medical practitioners, on how to ethically address major public health emergencies such as a major flu pandemic or natural disasters. 

We are also putting the “applied” into “applied medical ethics” by working with St. Luke’s Health Initiatives, the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at ASU, and others to build the Arizona Bioethics Network (ABN) that will integrate ethical training into health and medical service delivery and the continuing professional education of health care providers in new and exciting ways.  The Lincoln Center is poised to become the national “go to” center for creating ethical public health response systems and healthcare ethics training for those in the field that is able responsibly to engage the evolving and unpredictable future in the various fields of medicine and healthcare delivery.  The Center will also become the leader in taking up the ethical challenges central to defining the human in an age when technology is making the human itself a product of intentional human design.  

Ethics and Public Health Menu

Arizona Bioethics Network
Public Health Emergency Ethics
Revising Code of Ethics