Aboriginal Health Care in Canada-Bioethics Perspective

Health care for and among the Aboriginal population raises some unique ethical issues. Firstly, the health status of Aboriginal people in Canada, about 4% of the total population, appears to be in most aspects much worse than the health status of the rest of Canadians, leading to a significant difference in their average life span. This is a matter of social justice. The Aboriginal population needs to be recognized as a vulnerable group and Canadian society has to strive to eliminate discrepancy in health status. Secondly, Aboriginal patients living in a traditional community setting may have a set of values that may differ significantly from the values of main stream population of which the health care professional is used to accommodating. Consequently, Aboriginal patients may perceive the health services as alien and not meeting their needs. Furthermore, their values may be very important to other segments of the Canadian population, since it is composed of people of different cultural origins. A health care organization and its professionals, who understand and respect these values, will provide ethically more competent care. With some effort, it may be possible that traditional healers will become respected members of care teams and that traditional healing approaches can become available, along with evidence-based care, in our health care institutions. The attention to the ethical aspect of care for and among the Aboriginal population has a potential, not only to improve the experience of care and the quality of care for this vulnerable minority group, but also, to improve the ethical quality of health care in general.

並列關鍵字

Aboriginal population ； bioethics ； culture ； health status ； social justice ； traditional healer ； values ； vulnerable population

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