Alexandra Knighton
Final Honour School student
For my project, 'Surgical Missions: Origins, Ethics, Perspectives', I'm looking at the history of global surgery as well as current perspectives to discuss the ethics of surgical missions. Much of the unmet surgical care is shouldered by Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), whilst interventions are often provided by High Income Countries (HICs). I'm researching interventions in the form of surgical missions, where a team of surgeons from one country provide care in another. Whilst the intentions of these interventions are almost always good, the ethics and the impact can be questioned: often they are not economically effective, can disrupt the normal surgical activity, and can be exploitative, such as when used for training of the HIC workforce or voluntourism. I'm looking at how the history of global surgery ties in with the ethics and perspectives on modern day surgical missions.