Liberation medicine, u.S. child-family border separation, hurricane maria and life worthy of life

Abstract

Liberation Medicine is the conscious, conscientious use of health to promote social justice and human dignity. The new United States of America government policy of separating children from their families at the border has galvanized action on the part of health professionals and their professional organizations. The impact of Hurricane Maria’s devastation on 16 September 2017 in Puerto Rico has reverberated throughout the entire United States, and—like other examples globally—reminds us of our responsibility as clinicians to understand and influence social well-being in our patients’ lives. Liberation Medicine recognizes the interrelatedness of healthy lives in all corners of the world and the responsibility of health professionals to incorporate social well-being in daily practice. Liberation Medicine affirms that all life is worthy of life, and encourages that vision as a metric within health policy and patient care global to local.