A robust, particularist ethical assessment of medical tourism

Developing World Bioethics

Volumn 11, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 16-29

  Meghani, Zahra ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND   (United States)

Author keywords

Ethics; Health care; India; Medical tourism; Neoliberalism; US

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; DEVELOPED COUNTRY; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; ECONOMICS; ETHICS; GOVERNMENT; HEALTH CARE COST; HEALTH CARE DELIVERY; HEALTH INSURANCE; HUMAN; INDIA; INSURANCE; LEGAL ASPECT; MEDICAL TOURISM; MIGRATION; POLITICS; POVERTY; UNITED STATES;

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; FEDERAL GOVERNMENT; HEALTH CARE COSTS; HEALTH CARE SECTOR; HEALTH SERVICES ACCESSIBILITY; HUMANS; INDIA; INSURANCE COVERAGE; INSURANCE, HEALTH; MEDICAL TOURISM; POLITICS; POVERTY; RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY; UNITED STATES;

EID: 79952743546     PISSN: 14718731     EISSN: 14718847     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-8847.2010.00282.x     Document Type: Article

References (112)

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2. Different kinds of medical tourism procedures, such as reproductive, transplant and cosmetic, raise different ethical issues. As space constraints bar appropriate engagement with the moral questions that attend those forms of healthcare travel, this paper limits its focus to a form of medical tourism, specifically, non-cosmetic, non-reproductive, non-transplant, surgical medical tourism for procedures such as hip replacements
3. It is not possible to determine the exact number of Americans traveling to India as medical tourists. Foreign patients prefer not to get a medical visa as it requires that they register within two weeks of their arrival with regional authorities (R. Chinai & R. Goswami. Medical Visas Mark Growth of Indian Medical Tourism. B World Health Organ 2007; 85). However, it will be argued that given the systemic problems with the US healthcare system and given that India is a prime medical tourism destination, the number of American patients seeking care there is likely to increase2007
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94. While there is no necessary connection between SAPs and medical tourism, when the two phenomena co-exist as they do in India, the impact on availability of medical care for the poor and marginalized can be profound
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100. The migration of healthcare professionals from poorer to richer countries is a serious related ethical problem. However, it is not addressed at any length here because the focus of this paper is medical tourism. Readers interested in the issue will find useful articles by C.R. Hooper (Adding Insult to Injury: The Healthcare Brain Drain. J Med Ethics 2008; 34: 684-687), J. Snyder (Is Health Worker Migration a Case of Poaching? AJOB 9: 3-7), and J. Dwyer (What's Wrong with the Global Migration of Health Care Professionals? Hastings Cent Rep20073736-43
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