Resource type
Date created
2013
Authors/Contributors
Author (aut): Snyder, Jeremy
Author (aut): Crooks, Valorie A.
Author (aut): Johnston, Rory
Author (aut): Kingsbury, Paul
Abstract
Medical tourism (MT) can be conceptualized as the intentional pursuit of non-emergency surgical interventions by patients outside their nation of residence. Despite increasing popular interest in MT, the ethical issues associated with the practice have thus far been under-examined. MT has been associated with a range of both positive and negative effects for medical tourists' home and host countries, and for the medical tourists themselves. Absent from previous explorations of MT is a clear argument of how responsibility for the harms of this practice should be assigned. This paper addresses this gap by describing both backward looking liability and forward looking political responsibility for stakeholders in MT. We use a political responsibility model to develop a decision-making process for individual medical tourists and conclude that more information on the effects of MT must be developed to help patients engage in ethical MT.
Description
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Published as
Bioethics, 27(5): 233-242
Publication details
Publication title
Bioethics
Document title
Beyond Sun, Sand and Stitches: Assigning Responsibility for the Harms of Medical Tourism
Volume
27
Issue
5
First page
233
Last page
242
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author(s).
Scholarly level
Peer reviewed?
Yes
External links
Language
English
Member of collection