Dr. Paul Farmer, physician and anthropologist, is the co-founder of Partners In Health, a non-profit organization that states that it has two major goals:
... to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair ...
The essential argument of Farmer is that we have a moral obligation to alleviate suffering and thus that poverty should be no obstacle to medical care.
I agree that income inequality and the ensuing level of inequality in medical care are morally problematic. Adequate food, shelter, safety, and medical care seem to me fundamental human rights, especially in a world that has more than sufficient wealth to distribute these universally.
In the case of infectious diseases, given the level of global travel and migration, it also seems in the self-interest of wealthier countries to aid poorer ones, as diseases know no borders. It is only by global programs of vaccination and care that we can eradicate diseases rather than leaving reservoirs permitting the diseases to recur.
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