Abstract
Despite its explicit focus on justice and population level change, the field of public health ethics
is relatively new. At its core, public health ethics is about practical decision-making, often when
the law is unclear. Other scholars note that “decisions fall into the realm of ethics when they pertain
to things within our control that will either show respect or not show respect to human beings”
(Dubois, 2008, p. 47). Having a grounding in public health ethics is important because the
day-to-day decisions made by public health practitioners impact the “health and well-being of
diverse groups of individuals, groups, and communities” (American Public Health Association
[APHA], 2019). Public health ethics include the systematic evaluation of the morals of those decisions,
both before and after the decision is made and action is taken. According to Dawson and
Upshur, “public health ethics is concerned with everything related to the values that capture the
aims, methods, practice, and policy related to public health”