Recently a colleague sent me an article that appeared to
build on the concept of “One Health Ethics” mentioned in this blog last year (see
OneHealth ethics)
. Two veterinarians, enrolled in the Congressional Science and Engineering
Fellows Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science have
examined the concepts of human welfare, animal welfare, and the welfare of the
environment, and proposed that there is a need for a “One Welfare” approach to
a large number of issues that cuts across traditional divisions.
We are not talking about food stamps and entitlements here,
we are talking about the need for
society to "make decisions in an interdisciplinary frame with a focus on action
and a mission of balancing and promoting human and animal welfare in connected
ecosystems and societies."
This seems like a welcome antidote to the discussions of
human or animal welfare that at times seem to pit one species against each
other, or the cost benefit analyses that suggest environmental degradation may
be an inevitable a price tag for economic development . It will be interesting
to see whether others pick up this theme and begin developing practical
applications.
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