Ethical Considerations in Public Oral Healthcare Delivery
Muhammad Safdar Baig, Sarosh Saleem, Muhammad Zeeshan Baig, Faiz Rasul, Muhammad Tariq Karim, Hafsa Mughees
DOI: http://doi.org/10.63139/aqamc.v2i1.0006
Abstract
With the increasing demand for public oral healthcare, ethical considerations in healthcare delivery are essential for equity and social justice. While oral health issues have declined globally, inequalities in access to preventive and general oral healthcare persist, particularly in resource-limited settings. These disparities highlight the need for improved accessibility, public awareness, and acceptability of services. This article explores ethical parameters in oral healthcare delivery as a fundamental human right, emphasizing equity and social justice for underserved populations. Ethical responsibility, professional training, and integration of modern technologies play a crucial role in enhancing oral healthcare systems. Bioethical concerns arise from socioeconomic disparities, social deprivation, and unequal resource distribution, necessitating interventions to address these systemic issues. Developing countries like Pakistan face challenges due to limited resources and insufficient awareness of healthcare rights. Interventional bioethics can support efforts to address the multifactorial nature of oral healthcare delivery in such settings. Public oral healthcare is complex and demands ethical decision-making for treatment options while promoting community-based oral public health ethics. Although general oral health issues such as dental caries and gum diseases are decreasing worldwide, they persist in socioeconomically disadvantaged populations due to limited awareness, education, and affordability. A holistic ethical and social approach is required to ensure equity in healthcare delivery. Addressing these concerns from an ethical perspective rooted in fundamental human rights and social justice is imperative to improving oral healthcare access for underserved communities.
The ethical consideration in public oral healthcare delivery defines bioethics in the social context in which it has developed. Generally accepted, there are four main bioethical principles proposed by Varkey B i.e., autonomy, beneficence, non-malfeasance, and justice for public healthcare delivery at the community level1. Patients’ autonomy defines individuals’ own free will, which relates to the fundamental concern of public health policy based upon justice for oral healthcare delivery on the basis of equality for allocation of resources. Most of our population is underserved with respect to oral healthcare delivery because of the financial and time constraints involved in oral treatment procedures. There are certain bioethics concerned with the emerging situations in the present circumstances due to the development of societal approaches toward protecting and promoting the general health of the community. It pertains to social collective actions as compared to individual action, which seeks to improve the overall general well-being of the population. It has been observed that this population-focused approach gives rise to some ethical dilemmas in the context of certain activities that infringe upon the individual’s liberties in a society. Bioethics explores those ethical dilemmas related to these questions in life sciences. The role of bioethics in medical science is to enable health professionals, society stakeholders, and policy makers to make appropriate decisions, keeping in view the society and individual’s behavior about these policies for the community2,3. Bioethics pertains to the relation of a sociopolitical, social, and cultural alignment with technical scientific developments applicable to that society and community. However, the interpersonal principles and approaches in clinical bioethics are relatively inappropriate for social concerns in public health. Hence, there is a need to develop it in accordance with the issues raised by the public health professionals relevant to the field of interest and policy or intervention. There is no doubt about it: public health and bioethics have common issues as both the disciplines are concerned with human rights, social and cultural behaviors, and citizen rights in relation to public healthcare delivery in overall healthcare settings4.
The reason why oral diseases persist among the general population and particularly among the underprivileged is population groups’ accessibility to oral healthcare services delivery. The ethical principle of health promotion and protection is not only the responsibility of the state and its representative, stakeholders, but it must be fulfilled by each oral healthcare professional in their routine practice for the population. It should be based upon the principle of justice and fair-play by the health professional while healthcare delivery to focus towards most vulnerable community groups to facilitate them for optimal oral health benefits. “Public Health Bioethics” had evolved in the line of health promotion for prevention with responsibility, which requires a multidisciplinary approach for its practice. Health promotion by the governments and the private sector also need to play their role for this important aspect of over oral healthcare delivery as well.