Narrative Ethics in Public Health: The Value of Stories

This Open Access book illustrates the power of stories to illuminate ethical concerns that arise in public health. It complements epidemiological or surveillance evidence, and reveals stakeholder perspectives crucial for public health practitioners to develop effective and ethical public health interventions. Because it relies on the natural and universal appeal of stories, the book also serves to introduce the field of public health to students considering a career in public health. The opening section of the book also serves as a more didactic introduction to public health ethics and the field of narrative ethics. It describes the field of public health ethics including ethical principles relevant to public health practice and research, and the advantages of a narrative ethics approach. That approach explores the problems and the ethical challenges of public health from the inside, from the perspective of those experiencing health problems to the challenges of those who must address these problems. The later sections consist of 14 chapters that present the actual stories of these public health problems and challenges. In narrative style they range from first person narratives of both practitioners and citizens, to analysis of published short stories. The problems and challenges they address include issues relating to justice concerns, surveillance and stigma, community values and the value of community, trust and the value of information, and freedom and responsibility. Specific public health topics include resource allocation, restricting liberty to protect the community from health threats, and the health impact of trauma, addiction, obesity and health disparities.

Drue Barrett

Dr. Drue Barrett is the Lead of the Public Health Ethics and Strategy Unit (PHESU) in the Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Chair of the CDC Public Health Ethics Committee (PHEC). PHESU assists CDC scientists with ensuring that their work meets the highest ethical principles and standards of scientific integrity. This includes providing leadership, tools, technical assistance, and training on ethical and regulatory obligations. Her work has included leading the development of a training manual on public health ethics for local health officials and a public health ethics casebook (published as an open access book by Springer Press in April 2016). Dr. Barrett served for many years on CDC’s Institutional Review Boards (IRB), and chaired one of the IRBs. Other positions she has held at CDC include Acting Associate Director for Science in the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and Director of the Veterans Health Activity in the National Center for Environmental Health. Dr. Barrett received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1990 from Georgia State University. She also completed two years postdoctoral training in epidemiology and public health through CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Dr. Leonard Ortmann, a Senior Ethics Consultant at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, develops and provides public health ethics training to CDC staff, public health practitioners, and local college students in public health courses. For public health officials, practitioners and students, he co-developed a training manual on public health ethics and a 2018 Springer Press casebook on public health ethics. At CDC, he provides consultation to its various Centers and programs, its Biorepository, Emergency Operation Center, Institutional Biosafety Board, and Gift Review Panel. Dr. Ortmann came to CDC in 2008 asa Public Health Ethics Fellow from Tuskegee University, where he served as Senior Associate for Programs at its National Center for Bioethics. At Tuskegee, he also taught courses in ethics, bioethics, and research ethics and coached their Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl team. Prior to Tuskegee, he taught philosophy at several universities. He is the recipient of a Fulbright grant to conduct research on the relation of science to ethics at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. Dr. Ortmann holds B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy from Yale College and The Pennsylvania State University, respectively.

Stephanie Larson

Dr. Stephanie Larson is currently a fellow in clinical ethics at the Cleveland Clinic. She is a former Laney Graduate School Fellow and Dean’s Teaching Frost Fellow at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque where she taught courses on professional writing and ethics in the School of Public Administration. Dr. Larson received her PhD in English and Bioethics from Emory University. She also holds a B.S. in psychology and B.A. in English from Purdue University with honors and distinction. Interested in interdisciplinary scholarship, Dr. Larson studies the intersection of literature, public health, ethics, and medicine. Her dissertation project, “Hooked: Public Health, Parasites, and Twentieth-Century Literature of the US and Global South,” used the case study of twentieth-century hookworm eradication campaigns to propose an exchange between the fields of public health and literature. Dr. Larson has taught courses examining the intersection of public health, ethics, and the humanities at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional level. Dr. Larson’s work has been published in Disability Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Clinical Ethics, The Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation, and Literature and Medicine.