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The Duty of States to Assist other States in Need: Ethics, Human Rights, and International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Lawrence O. Gostin  and
Robert Archer
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Extract

This article deals with a foreign policy question of extraordinary importance: what responsibilities do States have to provide economic and technical assistance to other States that have high levels of need affecting the health and life of their citizens? The question is important for a variety of reasons. There exist massive inequalities in health globally, with the result that poorer countries shoulder a disproportionate burden of disease and premature death. Average life expectancy in Africa is nearly 30 years shorter than in the Americas or Europe. In one year alone, an estimated 14 million of the poorest people in the world died, while only an estimated four million would have died if this population had the same death rate as the global rich.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , Winter 2007 , pp. 526 - 533
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2007

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