Public Health Paternalism: Continuing the Dialogue

Epistemic paternalism in public health.

Receiving information about threats to one's health can contribute to anxiety and depression. In contemporary medical ethics there is considerable consensus that patient autonomy, or the patient's right to know, in most cases outweighs these negative effects of information. Worry about the detrimental effects of information has, however, been voiced in relation to public health more generally. ...

PUBLIC HEALTH ETHICS Epistemic paternalism in public health

Receiving information about threats to one’s health can contribute to anxiety and depression. In contemporary medical ethics there is considerable consensus that patient autonomy, or the patient’s right to know, in most cases outweighs these negative effects of information. Worry about the detrimental effects of information has, however, been voiced in relation to public health more generally. ...

Paternalism and public choice

There is an apparent contradiction in the economic approach to government policy. On one hand, neoclassical economists are champions of ‘consumer sovereignty’. This is the idea that individuals are the best judges of what is in their interests and should be able to make their own decisions. For example, economists would tend to oppose a regulation that required airbags to be installed in new ca...

Thoracoscopy forum: continuing dialogue.

Advancing public health through continuing education of health care professionals.

This article describes how the CS2day (Cease Smoking Today) initiative positioned continuing education (CE) in the intersection between medicine and public health. The authors suggest that most CE activities address the medical challenges that clinicians confront, often to the neglect of the public health issues that are key risk factors for the onset and exacerbation of diseases. The authors f...