BROOKINGS – Nicole Hassoun would like to see a world where people everywhere have access to the life-saving drugs they need to fight diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS.

Hassoun, a professor at Binghamton University, will discuss the impact of access to pharmaceuticals in her talk, “The Human Right to Health and the Virtue of Creative Resolve,” at 7 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Performing Arts Center’s Larson Memorial Concert Hall.

Her talk is part of the International Conference on Global Human Rights, held Oct. 4-6 on campus.

“The human right to health plays many important roles in national and international affairs. One such role is to inspire human rights advocates, claimants and those with responsibility for fulfilling the right to try hard to satisfy its claims,” she said.

“My hope is this talk will inspire people to get involved in a campus organization, volunteer their time to promote health or social justice in local communities or donate to an international health organization,” continued Hasson, who is the author of “Globalization and Global Justice: Shrinking Distance, Expanding Obligations” and is working on another book, tentatively titled, “Global Health Impact: Extending Access on Essential Medicines to the Poor” and the talk is  drawn from the book. “I want to get people to think about what kind of health-care system we want in the United States. As a society, we need to make decisions or revise decisions about health care, such as how it should look in this country and how we should promote and advance health to ensure that everyone can live a good life.”

Hassoun leads the Global Health Impact Organization, which intends to extend access to medicines to the global poor. The model they provide reviews:

• the need for the drug;

• its effectiveness; and

• how many people who need a drug can access it around the world.

“Dr. Hassoun is one of the, if not the, leading philosophers reflecting on issues of international fair access to pharmaceuticals, especially in developing world countries where they can be very expensive compared to local income,” said Greg Peterson, director of the SDSU Ethics Lab and a professor in the Department of History, Political Science, Philosophy and Religion. “She is also a leading political philosopher and ethical thinker with more than 60 articles appearing in a wide range of journals.”

Courtesy photo