We live in an era of globalization in which our essential interdependence is increasingly revealed. Transportation and communication technology plus worldwide health, environmental, and security risks and a world economy driven by transnational corporations are connecting us in a new kind of way. Incredible advances in biotechnology, the pressing demands of equity and justice in resource allocation, and the need for a universal perspective in health ethics are some of the issues challenging our moral imagination in significant ways. Nurses need to ask themselves: What changes for nursing ethics when the global—not the local—becomes the dominant frame of reference?
The author acknowledges the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research's support of this work through a research fellowship.
Advances in Nursing Science24(2):1-18, December 2001.