The goals of the Summer Academy in the Ethics of Global Population Health are: advancing the field of population-level bioethics; introducing graduate students and researchers, including academic leaders, to this emerging field, motivating and enabling them to contribute to its development; orienting policy makers and practitioners in international health on relevant ethical issues; bridging disciplines; and outlining themes for future research.

In a world of scarce resources and nearly limitless health needs, the ethics of resource allocation are a core set of issues in population-level bioethics. Scholars in the field address the choice between HIV prevention and antiretroviral treatment; whether middle-income countries should offer hemodialysis; and countless other choices involving expenditures on pills, procedures, and facilities. But much less attention has been paid to a resource that may be the most life-saving of all: trained hands and minds. If skilled health professionals are drained away, other resources lie unused or misused.

During the week-long Academy key experts in the field of global health policy, along with senior academics in several fields and talented younger scholars will exchange views and debate these critical issues.