An ethical framework for public health immunisation programs

An ethical framework for public health immunisation programs.

This paper presents seven ethical principles associated with the implementation of immunisation programs. For a public health immunisation program to be ethically justifiable, its principles and operation should be based on sound ethical values: the program should benefit the individual and the community; targeted diseases should be sufficiently severe and frequent to justify the risks and expe...

Nudging in Public Health – An Ethical Framework

HIV antibody screening. An ethical framework for evaluating proposed programs.

We believe that the greatest hope for stopping the spread of HIV infection lies in the voluntary cooperation of those at higher risk--their willingness to undergo testing and to alter their personal behavior and goals in the interests of the community. But we can expect this voluntary cooperation--in some cases, sacrifice--only if the legitimate interests of these groups and individuals in bein...

A ‘Nudge’ for Public Health Ethics: Libertarian Paternalism as a Framework for Ethical Analysis of Public Health Interventions?

Is it possible to interfere with individual decision-making while preserving freedom of choice? The purpose of this article is to assess whether ‘libertarian paternalism’, a set of political and ethical principles derived from the observations of behavioural sciences, can form the basis of a viable framework for the ethical analysis of public health interventions. First, the article situates li...

Ethical analysis in public health.

Public-health regularly encounters serious ethical dilemmas, such as rationing scarce resources, influencing individuals to change their behaviour, and limiting freedom to diminish disease transmission. Yet unlike medical ethics, there is no agreed-upon framework for analysing these difficulties. We offer such a framework. It distinguishes three philosophical views, often invoked in public-heal...