The way health is conceptualized determines the actions taken to protect and
promote it and, in turn, the actors responsible for such actions in an increasingly
inter-dependent world. This essay presents a brief description of health policies
in Peru during the last ten years in order to analyze the implications of paradigms
of medical ethics, human rights and quality of care. These paradigms offer
distinct ways of formulating, applying and evaluating health policies and
understanding the relati…
Read moreThe way health is conceptualized determines the actions taken to protect and
promote it and, in turn, the actors responsible for such actions in an increasingly
inter-dependent world. This essay presents a brief description of health policies
in Peru during the last ten years in order to analyze the implications of paradigms
of medical ethics, human rights and quality of care. These paradigms offer
distinct ways of formulating, applying and evaluating health policies and
understanding the relationship among different actors at various levels. Building
upon other detailed analyses of sexual and reproductive health policy in Peru
(Coe, 2004; Miranda and Yamin, 2004), as well as critical appraisals of health
services models (Gericke, Kurowski, Ranson and Mills, 2005; Krieger,
Northridge, Gruskin, Quinn, Kriebel, Davey Smith, Bassett, Rehkopf and Miller,
2003), this article advocates the importance of construing and promoting health
as a human right.