The present text examines the general concept of responsibility, ethical responsibility and social responsibility with special reference to the public health system and particularly to the public health system in Romania. A central issue is the analysis of the individual ethical responsibility and the problematic of the way ethical responsibility may be extended also to the level of organizations understood as distinct entities required behaving ethically and socially responsible. The concept of social responsibility extrapolates from the social responsibility of corporations to the responsibility of all types of organizations, and especially of the state understood as an organization that acts ethically and responsibly in the global system