Diritto alla salute e migrazioni internazionali: per una bioetica in azione

Bioethics scholars have always shown a preference for discussion and research over cutting-edge topics and dilemmas arising from technological advancements in health sciences and healthcare. As highlighted by the Italian physician and bioethicist Giovanni Berlinguer, these topics represent only a part of bioethics that he defined as frontier bioethics. Besides the latter, Berlinguer claims for an everyday bioethics, which includes matters that concern the majority of the population in contemporary societies, such as health access and equity, health inequalities and discrimination, public health and primary care services. In this work, I use the lens provided by the everyday bioethics to assess the weight of the difference which currently overwhelms migrants in both maintaining psychophysical well-being and accessing adequate healthcare services in host countries. I will start by outlining the main risks for migrants’ health during their transit as well as the main obstacles preventing them from accessing adequate healthcare services in receiving countries. I will elaborate by trying to shed light on the association between people movement and the spread of infectious diseases, after which I will look at the interplay of detention, migration and healthcare. I will then highlight the main challenges associated with socio-cultural misconceptions in health and healthcare that exacerbate health inequalities to the detriment of migrant people. In the conclusions, I build on the everyday bioethics approach by speculating what its contribution may be to both bioethics and the attempt to enhance the protection of migrants’ health.