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Welcome to the first ever Canadian Roundtable on Public Health Ethics to be held at the Delta Montréal Hotel (475 President Kennedy Avenue) on November 8 and 9, 2007, in Montréal.
The events of the past few years have sparked a renewed interest in public health matters. This renewed interest has been accompanied by an interest in public health ethics as a separate and distinct field from traditional patient-centered bioethics.
In particular, the lessons observed from the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome provided an opportunity for many jurisdictions to begin a dialogue on public health ethics in Canada, to examine the values and principles underpinning public health powers, and to begin developing institutional and practice-centered strategies and tools. As we look to the future, we believe that public health ethics will become an increasingly important structural determinant of population health.
This inaugural conference will provide a unique opportunity for policy makers, academics and public health practitioners to come together to promote dialogue and understanding of ethics and its application across disciplines, e.g. biomedical research and public health; foster inter-professional and inter-sectoral linkages; and identify issues and opportunities for supporting the development of a national framework for ethics guiding public health authorities and health care organizations during e.g. public health emergency situations. Your participation will promote this interaction and help to sustain it over the long term.
We hope you will give this invitation full consideration.
OBJECTIVES
This Roundtable has been designed to:
* identify and bring together stakeholders involved/interested in public health ethics;
* improve the understanding of the inherent ethical dimensions of public health research and practice;
* promote dialogue and understanding of ethics and its application across sectors, e.g. biomedical research, clinical ethics, public health ethics, health policy, and political decision-making; and
* identify opportunities and challenges for action or initiatives in public health ethics. |