Justice, Solidarity, and Global Health

“This reassertion of justice as a fundamental value underpinning human relations – here in the context of health – is based on the conviction that others are equally vulnerable, valuable and deserving of care. While borrowing from analyses of solidarity as an alternative to western impositions of ‘humanism’, West-Oram persuasively argues that it is no less open to western hubris than the justice for which some would substitute it.” — Professor Emeritus Bob Brecher, The University of Brighton, UK

“With a robust, pro-social conceptualisation of solidarity at its core, Dr West-Oram’s rights-based account of global health justice advances a crucial philosophical argument for scholars and actors engaged in the field of global health. The book systematically constructs a grounding for moral duties that are correlative to meaningful health rights and attuned to concerns of transnational justice. The work is timely, provocative, and will advance debates in an essential and challenging field of inquiry and practice.“— John Coggon, Professor of Law, University of Bristol, UK

“Health – West-Oram argues – is of special importance, as human beings have a shared vulnerability to illness, resulting in duties to provide healthcare to others. West-Oram highlights when solidarity is effective, and when it fails, introducing the novel concept of ‘exclusionary solidarity’, to show how it can exclude, deprive and harm outsiders. Justice, Solidarity and Global Health is an innovative and important book, illustrated using real-world examples, such as the Covid pandemic.” —Heather Widdows, Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick, UK

Peter West-Oram is Associate Professor in Bioethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, UK.