PUBLIC HEALTH AND REDEEMING HUMAN DIGNITY
Indian Christian Ethical Reflections
Keywords:
PUBLIC HEALTH, HUMAN DIGNITYAbstract
Health is concerned with the well-being of a person – not just the biological and psychological well-being but the integral well-being of a person in the society. It affects all aspects of one’s personhood. Public health, with its curative and preventive dimensions, is the science and art of protecting and respecting life, preventing diseases, prolonging and promoting life and health through concerted and organized public or community effort. In the contemporary society, public health is commonly known as community health, as it is concerned with the health of all the members of the community and is to be protected and promoted by all segments of the society. Since Christianity upholds the unique value of every human person, endowed with rationality, freedom, responsibility, and a capacity to love and relate, the issue of public health should be a very important concern in the Christian ethics and spirituality. Similarly, a serious commitment to the establishment of public health should be a constitutive aspect of Christian faith and practice, as Christianity believes that all human beings belong to one human family.
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