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The Health Status of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: Reflection, Realization, and Response
Enweyin: The Way We Speak (2003)
  • Sam Grey, University of Victoria
Abstract

“[A] great many people have little access to health care […] and spend their lives fighting unnecessary morbidity” (Sen, 1999:15). To Nobel-laureate Amartya Sen, this is a fundamental form of ‘unfreedom.’ To many Aboriginal1 people, it is a characteristic of contemporary existence within the boundaries of Canada. Because the health status of Native people has continued to register as inequitably poor, despite the existence of socialized medicine and a proliferation of government health programs, claims that a simple increase in health services or a reorganization of the health care budget will have a positive impact are no longer sensible. And with Indigenous peoples bearing a disproportionate amount of excess and premature morbidity and mortality, such claims are no longer ethical.

Keywords
  • Indigenous/Aboriginal health,
  • public health policy,
  • medical pluralism
Publication Date
2003
Citation Information
Sam Grey. "The Health Status of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: Reflection, Realization, and Response" Enweyin: The Way We Speak Vol. VII (2003)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/samgrey/14/