The social building of health in multicultural societies
Section: Ethics and Society
How to quote
Mariano L, Encinas B. La construcción social de la salud en las sociedades multiculturales. Metas de Enfermería nov 2003; 6(9): 50-54
Authors
1Lorenzo Mariano Juárez, 2Beatriz Encinas Chamorro
Position
1Diplomado en Enfermería. Licenciado en Antropología Social y Cultural. 2Diplomada en Enfermería. Centro de Atención de Disminuidos Psíquicos de Nuñomoral, Cáceres.
Contact address
C/ Portugal, 32. Alcuéscar. 10160 Cáceres.
Contact email: Lorenzomariano@hotmail.com
Abstract
Modern societies are characterised by their plurality and multiculturalism where different models of people, with different ways and life styles, cohabitate. In many cases this leads to a confrontation of ideologies in several different fronts. Health, with a marked social and cultural component, is one of these fronts. Conceptual divergences surrounding the health of each social group or ethnia lead to this confrontation, which force health systems and bioethics to state an opinion when faced with vital issues such as the determination of whether the cultural identity must prevail before the right to health o whether cultural traditions observed under the prism of relativism must prevail before the right of the individual to their own care. The answers may be found in the dialogue amongst cultures, in a way that permits a common moral minimum for the analysis of each particular case.
Keywords:
bioethics; multicultural society; social building of healthcultural identity
Versión en Español
Título:
La construcción social de la salud en las sociedades multiculturales
