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Health Care Analysis
Published in: Health Care Analysis 4/2010

01-12-2010 | Original Article

The Ethics of Health Barriers to Immigration: Morality Among Neighbours

Author: Eike-Henner W. Kluge

Published in: Health Care Analysis | Issue 4/2010

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Abstract

Many countries encourage immigration, yet almost without exception they impose medical conditions on the admissibility of prospective immigrants. This paper examines the ethical defensibility of this practice. It argues that the neighbourhood principle, which states that we owe a greater duty to neighbours than to strangers, when properly understood, extends to all human beings, that economic and safety considerations play only a limited role in ethically underwriting an exclusionary policy, and that medical immigration criteria should be harmonized with treatment eligibility criteria for citizens of the relevant countries themselves.
Footnotes
1
In Kantian terms, providing that care would a supererogatory act, not a duty.
 
2
It is a separate question whether there lies a duty to admit medically needy immigrants who do not pose a public danger but who, because of their health condition, will be unable to sustain themselves economically and consequently will become a drain on public resources.
 
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Metadata
Title
The Ethics of Health Barriers to Immigration: Morality Among Neighbours
Author
Eike-Henner W. Kluge
Publication date
01-12-2010
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Health Care Analysis / Issue 4/2010
Print ISSN: 1065-3058
Electronic ISSN: 1573-3394
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-009-0142-z

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