The Ethics of Fighting Drug Resistance
The fight against antimicrobial resistance is based on an ethical imperative to protect human, animal, and environmental health, not just today, but for future generations. And yet tackling AMR poses its own ethical challenges and dilemmas, which policymakers need to address sensibly, transparently, and urgently.
GOTHENBURG – In 2014, the World Health Organization reported that drug resistance – especially resistance to antibiotics – is a growing threat to human health, food security, and “the achievements of modern medicine.” Far from being an “apocalyptic fantasy,” the WHO said, a post-antibiotic era “is instead a very real possibility for the twenty-first century.”