Promoting Healthy Behavior: How Much Freedom? Whose Responsibility?Daniel Callahan Georgetown University Press, 04/02/2000 - 192 من الصفحات The government, the media, HMOs, and individual Americans have all embraced programs to promote disease prevention. Yet obesity is up, exercise is down, teenagers continue to smoke, and sexually transmitted disease is rampant. Why? These intriguing essays examine the ethical and social problems that create subtle obstacles to changing Americans' unhealthy behavior. The contributors raise profound questions about the role of the state or employers in trying to change health-related behavior, about the actual health and economic benefits of even trying, and about the freedom and responsibility of those of us who, as citizens, will be the target of such efforts. They ask, for instance, whether we are all equally free to live healthy lives or whether social and economic conditions make a difference. Do disease prevention programs actually save money, as is commonly argued? What is the moral legitimacy of using economic and other incentives to change people's behavior, especially when (as with HMOs) the goal is to control costs? One key issue explored throughout the book is the fundamental ambivalence of traditionally libertarian Americans about health promotion programs: we like the idea of good health, but we do not want government or others posing threats to our personal lifestyle choices. The contributors argue that such programs will continue to prove less than wholly successful without a fuller examination of their place in our national values. |
من داخل الكتاب
النتائج 1-5 من 35
... efforts have spawned an active and committed enterprise . There are , however , or seem to be , fewer explorations of the ethical and social problems that may be putting subtle and hidden obstacles in the way , than the enterprise — and ...
... efforts within the broader context of the ethos and politics of a nation . By arguing for a communitarian perspective , they show that efforts to improve the health of the public must be deeply rooted in a view of human nature and human ...
... efforts to address some of these broader issues , however , the major contributions of both the Lalonde and the surgeon general's reports lay in calling attention to the often substantial role individuals can play in modifying their ...
... efforts may effectively reach those for whom personal behavior changes could make a significant difference in terms of risk factor reduction.33 The above arguments are frequently cited as part of the scientific base for approaches to ...
... effort has been devoted to elucidating those mediating factors that may explain the relationship between personal responsibility and socioeconomic status ( SES ) . Central to much of this theorizing and research is the notion of control ...
المحتوى
23 | |
HELEN HALPIN SCHAUFFLER | 37 |
E HAAVI MORREIM | 56 |
ANN ROBERTSON | 76 |
RONALD LABONTE | 95 |
Finding | 137 |
MEREDITH MINKLER | 153 |
Contributors | 171 |