The new politics of male circumcision: HIV/AIDS, health law and social justice

Legal Studies ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Fox ◽  
Michael Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Male Circumcision ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Female Genital Cutting ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Hiv Aids

This paper engages with a changing politics of male circumcision. It suggests that various shifts which have occurred in how the issue is debated challenge legal constructions of the practice as a private familial issue. Although circumcision rates have declined in those Western nations which have traditionally practised it, the procedure is now being promoted as a medicalised response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Such initiatives propose a new biomedical rationale for the practice and have been difficult to confine to the African context or to adult bodies, prompting a resurgence of enthusiasm for neonatal male circumcision on the part of professional bodies in the USA and elsewhere. Although we have reservations about such public health policies, which we suggest downplay risks inherent in the procedure both for the individual and for the advancement of public health, we argue that such strategies have the potential to move debates about circumcision beyond the parameters of traditional ‘medical law’, with its focus on the doctor–patient nexus and the issue of who can validly consent to medical procedures. We suggest that, as with female genital cutting, male circumcision ought to be debated within a paradigm of social justice which gives adequate weighting to the interests of all affected parties (including women whose health may actually be compromised by the procedure) and which renders visible the socio-economic dimensions of the issue. In line with a social justice approach, we argue that public health initiatives must comply with international ethico-legal standards and be attentive to the emergence of an international human right to health. The shift in analytical frame that we propose has the potential not only to make us re-think our approach to the ethics and legality of male circumcision by challenging its construction as a familial decision but also to impact on the need for a broader conceptualisation of health law as rooted in social justice.

scholarly journals Willingness to Pay for Condoms among Men in Sub-Saharan Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Evans ◽  
Kuyosh Kadirov ◽  
Ibou Thior ◽  
Ramakrishnan Ganesan ◽  
Alec Ulasevich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Condom Use ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Donor Funding ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Tool Building ◽  
Hiv Aids

HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to be among the greatest public health threats worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Condom use remains an essential intervention to eradicate AIDS, and condom use is now higher than ever. However, free and subsidized condom funding is declining. Research on how to create healthy markets based on willingness to pay for condoms is critically important. This research has three primary aims: (1) willingness of free condom users in five African countries to pay for socially marketed condoms; (2) the relationship between specific population variables and condom brand marketing efforts and willingness to pay; and (3) potential opportunities to improve condom uptake. Nationally representative samples of at least 1200 respondents were collected in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. We collected data on a range of demographic factors, including condom use, sexual behavior, awareness of condom brands, and willingness to pay. We estimated multivariate linear regression models and found that free condom users are overwhelmingly willing to pay for condoms overall (over 90% in Nigeria) with variability by country. Free users were consistently less willing to pay for condoms if they had a positive identification with their free brand in Kenya and Zimbabwe, suggesting that condom branding is a critical strategy. Ability to pay was negatively correlated with willingness, but users who could not obtain free condoms were willing to pay for them in Kenya and Zimbabwe. In a landscape of declining donor funding, this research suggests opportunities to use scarce funds for important efforts such as campaigns to increase demand, branding of condoms, and coordination with commercial condom manufacturers to build a healthy total market approach for the product. Free condoms remain an important HIV/AIDS prevention tool. Building a robust market for paid condoms in SSA is a public health priority.

scholarly journals Moral Messaging in a Time of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Misiak ◽  
Petr Tureček ◽  
Oliver Scott Curry
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Behaviour ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Common ◽  
Specific Culture ◽  
The Individual

Do appeals to moral values increase compliance with COVID-19 public health measures? According to the theory of ‘Morality as cooperation’, morality consists of a collection of cooperative principles that help us get along, work together and promote the common good. We experimentally investigated whether messages that appeal to these moral principles increase pandemic-related public health behaviour. We investigated: (a) Are moral messages more effective than non-moral messages? (b) Are some moral messages more effective than others? c) Is the effectiveness of moral messages dependant on the corresponding moral values of the individual? (d) Do these effects hold across cultures? Participants (recruited from the USA and India) were presented with one of ten messages, asked questions about their intentions to follow the restrictions, were asked to donate to a charity fighting COVID-19, and completed the Morality-as-Cooperation Relevance Questionnaire. We found that: (a) Moral messages were more effective in increasing the donation than a non-moral message and more effective in increasing the intentions to act prosocially than a lack of message. (b) Messages appealing to heroism increased the intentions to act prosocially in both samples. (c) The effectiveness of moral messages was better when they were concordant with participants’ moral values, but only in the USA sample. (d) We also found that some moral messages were effective only in a particular population. Thus, moral messages may increase compliance with public health guidelines, but it is necessary to appeal to particular values and to tailor these messages for a specific culture.

scholarly journals Towards a definition of anti-oppressive dietetic practice in Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-14
Author(s):  
Eric Ng ◽  
Caroline Wai
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

Increasingly, dietitians have found ourselves working with racialized clients, communities, and colleagues across the health and food systems in Canada. We are often asked to treat the adverse health outcomes of Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities resulting from these oppressions at the individual level. However, it is the role of dietitians to engage in efforts to "reduce health inequities and protect human rights; promote fairness and equitable treatment" (College of Dietitians of Ontario, 2019). An anti-oppression approach is required for dietitians to understand how their power and privilege shape the dietitian-client relationship. The purpose of this commentary is to propose a shift from cultural competence or diversity and inclusion in dietetics to an explicit intention of anti-oppressive dietetic practice. We begin our exploration from the Canadian context. We draw from our background working in health equity in public health, and our experiences facilitating equity training using anti-oppression approaches with dietetic learners and other public health practitioners. In creating a working definition of anti-oppressive dietetic practice, we conducted a scan of anti-oppression statements by health and social services organizations in Ontario, Canada, and literature from critical dietetics. A literature search revealed anti-oppressive practice frameworks in nursing and social work. However, this language is lacking in mainstream dietetic practice, with anti-oppression only discussed within the literature on critical dietetics and social justice. We propose that "dietitians can engage in anti-oppressive practice by providing food and nutrition care/planning/service to clients while simultaneously seeking to transform health and social systems towards social justice."

REALISING SOCIAL JUSTICE IN PUBLIC HEALTH LAW

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fox ◽  
M. Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Public Health Law

scholarly journals The Structure of Attempted Crimes: Cross Border Positions of India, U.S.A and the U.K

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3S2) ◽  
pp. 338-342
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Language Game ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Property ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Actual Harm ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Universal Law

For engaging in a productive comparison among the jurisprudences of India, UK and the USA, a level of abstraction must be reached which makes possible the commensuration of the doctrinal discussion created in all these three contexts. In the sphere of the theory of criminal law, such a shared scheme of concept can be obtained in the extensively recognised difference among the three sets of legal standards or rules, which feasible for entering in the depth of the language game of attributing the basis of criminal liability. This article is an attempt at redefining the conception of attempted crimes, based on a logically oriented theory of standards which recognises the deficit of the wrongfulness of the behaviour imputable to the agent as its distinguishing spot. This type of offence imperfection is described as a dearth of complete performative similarity within the objective configuration of the behaviour of the agent and its value of decoration. A majority of the universal law crimes make the involvement of actual harm to property or person. For this reason, manslaughter, murder, mayhem, rape and robbery have the requirement of hurting to the individual whereas arson have the requirement of harm to real larceny and property, harm to personal property. In contrast to this, in some universal law, crimes might be carried out even though there is no harm except the threat of harm. Solicitation for committing a felony is a criminal act though the individual becomes failure in committing it. This article shall analyses the cases which relate to the different types of criminal attempts in the countries of India, the United Kingdom and the United States of America with reference to the criminal laws in the respective countries. The entire research shall be carried out assessing a total of almost ten to eleven cases of attempted crimes.

scholarly journals Comparative analysis of access to patented HIV/AIDS pharmaceutical medicines through the Canadian and EU TRIPS flexibilities measures: are they efficacious or overly burdensome and ineffective measures?

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omphemetse S Sibanda
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Essential Medicine ◽  
Immune Deficiency Syndrome ◽  
World Trade Organisation ◽  
Deficiency Syndrome ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Pharmaceutical Drugs ◽  
Council Decision ◽  
Ssa Countries ◽  
Hiv Aids

This paper evaluates the Canadian and the European Union's (EU) implementation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Council Decision of 2003, which resolved that developed nations could export patented pharmaceutical drugs to member states in order to address public health challenges such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics, such states including Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The author makes a primarily textual appraisal of how and to what extent the Canada Access to Medicine Regime (CAMR) and European Union (EU) Regulations benefit, for instance, SSA countries in the WTO in their quest to make essential medicine more accessible. The author argues that although there are identifiable complexities inherent in the Canadian and the EU's access to pharmaceutical product regimes, there are far more important incentives and benefits that can be reaped in taking advantage of the respective systems. The author recommends that countries facing public health crises/emergencies, such as SSA countries, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) take advantage of the regulatory flexibilities of Canada and the EU in their efforts to provide their communities with essential HIV/AIDS treatment, and treatment for other diseases such as malaria. The author dismisses the arguments against TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property) flexibilities-inspired legislation and similar measures as mostly mere rhetoric and hair-splitting, because they sometimes unwarrantedly dismiss a workable solution to public-health problems. 

scholarly journals The Bi-Directional Relationship Between Childhood Malnutrition and HIV/AIDS

2021 ◽  
Vol In Press (In Press) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Ejiroghene Ajari ◽  
Boluwatife Adeleye Adewale
Keyword(s):  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Opportunistic Infections ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Childhood Malnutrition ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Hiv Antiretroviral Therapy ◽  
Hiv Aids

: Childhood malnutrition, a disorder broadly classified into overnutrition and undernutrition, is highly prevalent globally, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. Several studies have highlighted the bidirectional relationship between this disorder and HIV/AIDS, another disease with a high global prevalence. This relationship is quite complex. Links have been established between the disease entities on the individual, family and household level. Opportunistic infections and diseases associated with HIV, antiretroviral therapy and its adverse effects have also been implicated in this relationship. The key implicated variables includes frequency of disease occurrence, morbidity and mortality rate, and disease transmission rate. This paper reviews existing literatures on the subject matter, identifies key knowledge gaps, and recommends the need for further study of this complex relationship in order to close the gaps and inform decisions in healthcare.

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