Ethical Perspectives Summarize Briefly the Organization\'s Background

Ethical Perspectives

Summarize briefly the organization's background / history.

The World Health Organization (WHO) was established in 1948. This was in response to the need for an entity which could address issues impacting various countries and their overall quality of health. They began cataloguing and analyzing how communicable diseases can be prevented over the long-term through effective coordination. Since this time, they have achieved a number of milestones through this approach to include: working to develop a vaccine for polio, helping to conduct the first heart transplant, focusing on effective vaccinations (in order to prevent the spread of communicable diseases), providing essential drugs to over 156 countries, the eradication of small pox and working to coordinate with various stakeholders around the globe. ("An Introduction to the World Health Organization," 2007)

Its primary mission is continuing to evolve with a focus on a number of objectives. The most notable include:

Providing leadership in areas of health and establishing partnerships for dealing with these challenges.

Establishing standards and principles in helping to implement, promote as well as monitor different policies. That will have a positive impact on the health of stakeholders inside a variety of nations around the globe.

Providing technical support and assistance to various nations in improving their healthcare services.

Monitoring different trends in health and analyzing when possible outbreaks are occurring inside specific regions.

Coordinating with various nations to deal with health related issues.

These areas are showing how the WHO is helping to improve how countries will address and respond to health related challenges impacting them. ("An Introduction to the World Health Organization," 2007)

Identify ethical perspectives in the global organization.

The WHO is concerned about values and the standards of conduct. When working with different stakeholders; this means that they will focus on: professional integrity, the delivery of health care services, the utilization of human subjects in research and how new techniques will impact stakeholder (such as: genome therapy). At the heart of their focus, is to create an environment that will protect the interests of various stakeholders. While simultaneously, concentrating on creating strategies that are promoting the responsible growth of research / development and practices that are supporting the interests of everyone. It is this point when they can become a part of the larger solutions, which are improving the levels of health inside a variety of countries around the globe. ("Health Ethics," 2011)

Compare these ethical perspectives across cultures involved in the global organization.

In different cultures, there are contrasting views about health and the underlying causes of what is happening to someone. For instance, in the West, many of these practices are based upon scientific principles and the impact it is having on various stakeholders. While other regions, will have contrasting views based upon supernatural beliefs. Inside these cultures, many people think that when someone is affected by a particular health condition. They are being punished for some kind of transgression. ("How Culture Influences Health Beliefs," 2012)

Moreover, many cultures will not acknowledge that there are challenges from particular conditions impacting an individual. For example, inside India and Pakistan, mental illness is not considered to be a disease. Instead, it is something that can hurt the other family members' chances of getting married. When this happens, they will often ignore or hide these issues from a willingness to avoid these social stigmas. ("How Culture Influences Health Beliefs," 2012)

Furthermore, some cultures are reluctant to seek out health care solutions. This is because of views that they could be harmed from experiments which are conducted without their authorization. There are also concerns that any kind of personal information will be provided to government officials. They will use this data to determine their views about the nation's political situation and if they are opposed to the current leadership. These issues will make some people reluctant to be forthright about their condition. ("How Culture Influences Health Beliefs," 2012)

The challenge for the WHO is to respect these beliefs. While at the same time, they must be able to debunk some of the misconceptions and illustrate the long-term impacts it is having on them. This is accomplished through establishing regional teams. Their jobs are to demonstrate how select practices can help to increase the spread of various diseases in different areas of the world. ("An Introduction to the World Health Organization," 2007)

For instance, inside Africa there is a tradition of having large families in order to support the older generation. This means that there is an increase in unsafe heterosexual practices among different men and women in society. The problem is that these activities helped to spread the AIDS/HIV virus. ("An Introduction to the World Health Organization," 2007)

At the same time, they have the responsibility of showing how the disease was spread (by highlighting that it was not from mystical beliefs). But rather, the way it is directly related to these activities. Once the problem became so large, is the point that they were able to illustrate how they are respecting their cultural traditions. Yet, in order to prevent the virus from impacting more people is the point when they began to incorporate scientific ideals with those of African society. This resulted in more people understanding the causes of the disease and they began to change their habits. ("An Introduction to the World Health Organization," 2007)

Identify yourself in an imaginary position abroad and explain how you would handle ethically a specific example of the cultural issue.

As the head of a regional health team for the WHO, it is imperative to create solutions which will offer everyone with ideas. That will prevent the spread of different diseases. In places such as Africa, this means that there must be a series of meetings with individuals about how their lifestyle is contributing to these issues. This is occurring through their practices and not following different kinds of procedures. This will reduce the chances of contracting a particular disease. ("An Introduction to the World Health Organization," 2007)