Ethics, Human Rights and Healthcare in Uganda

Abstract

This paper attempts to show the linkage between Ethics, Human Rights and Healthcare. In the first place, it argues that healthcare needs ethics to guide it and make it humane; otherwise it is used against the person. This also explains the need for moral uprightness in the healthcare profession. Secondly, it shows how healthcare is also a human rights question in a dialectical relationship, since health policies and practices can affect human rights, just like the infringement on these latter can affect health. This has led questioning the extent to which healthcare practices in Uganda promote or threaten people’s lives and wellbeing. Thus, some practices and policies which seriously affect the lives and rights of patients, staff, families and the community in the Uganda context are examined. However, it also argues that human rights cannot solve all moral questions in healthcare and thus the need for other considerations.