A/Prof. Chris Degeling1
1University Of Wollongong, Australia
Biography:
Chris Degeling is Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Engagement, Evidence and Values at the University of Wollongong. He is a social scientist specialising in empirical research in health. Chris’ research focuses on the intersection of public health ethics, public health policy and emerging issues at the human-animal-ecosystem interface.
Abstract:
The occurrence and cross-species transmissibility of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) hinge on human activities, particularly changes in land use and agricultural practices. Facing a future with greater risks from novel zoonotic pathogens, the World Bank and Quadripartite (WHO, FAO, UNEP, WOAH) are asking governments to shift to a proactive ‘upstream’ One Health paradigm to attenuate EID risks. One Health is an inter-disciplinary cross-sectoral approach to research practice and policy that explicitly acknowledges the interdependence of human, animal and environmental health. Efforts to move towards a One Health primary prevention of (EIDs) will require extensive stakeholder consultation and comprise. As exemplified by new EU regulations that ban agricultural imports from land cleared before 2020, measures to address the anthropogenic drivers of EIDs have significant social and economic implications that place new burdens on a broad range of stakeholders. In the last 10 years One Health ethics has emerged and focused on the normative implications of human-nonhuman interdependencies, interspecies justice, and the status and value that should be accorded to nonhuman life. As international pressure for One Health primary prevention is set to increase, the ethical case to minimise EID risks through structural and occupational reforms and ecological countermeasures remains relatively unexplored. In this paper I will explicate the key arguments both for and against One Health primary prevention – exploring justifications that rely on different conceptions of justice and the implications of conflicts between human and nonhuman interests and their temporal dimensions.