Social responsibility for health as a global bioethical principle

Abstract

The fact that the Protestant faith tradition was not involved in the discourse during the development of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics of Human Rights (UDBHR) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has made the universality of the declaration and specific article 14 (social responsibility in health) a point of contention and hampered full support of the document by the Protestant faith tradition. This study has shown, however, that the broad Protestant faith tradition may support the UDBHR and specific article 14 in its call to social responsibility to health because this global appeal can be grounded on the Bible. This discussion also gives a preliminary ethical perspective on the Life Esidimeni tragedy.