ABSTRACT
Ethical issues have surfaced throughout the history of public health. Concerned as it is with promoting and protecting the health of populations through collective actions, public health has had a traditional concern with balancing personal liberties alongside promoting social goods. In recent years, however, there has been something of a shift towards a broader commitment to health for all and narrowing social inequalities in health. This commitment has been articulated explicitly in terms of global equity, fairness and social justice. Paralleling this shift has been an expansion of neo-liberal ideology among many governments as well as a number of global institutions. Justice-based obligations relating to improving the conditions of everyday life for those most disadvantaged are unlikely to hold sway when the dominant ideology emphasizes personal freedoms and choices. Nonetheless, public health ethics provides a framework for evaluating these different arguments and actions.
