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 23
... environmental factors in influencing health and did not limit themselves to a discussion of individual lifestyle or personal behavior issues . The Surgeon General's report , for example , argued persuasively that " we are killing ...
... environmental assault on health . It instructs people to be individually responsible at a time when they are becoming less capable as individuals of controlling their health environment . " Holding the individual responsible for health ...
... environmental contexts and realities are taken into account , the limitations of an approach to health promotion based on personal responsibility for health are cast in stark relief . Another important dimension of the victim - blaming ...
... environmental or societal responsibil- ity focus . Stanford Heart Disease Project founder Jack Farquhar thus strongly advocates for increased excise taxes on cigarettes which , he argues , could reduce smoking rates far more effectively ...
... environmental forces that must be addressed if healthier societies are to be attained.83 Balancing Individual and Social Responsibility for Health As epidemiologist S. Leonard Syme once wrote : No one would argue that , as individuals ...
المحتوى
23 | |
HELEN HALPIN SCHAUFFLER | 37 |
E HAAVI MORREIM | 56 |
ANN ROBERTSON | 76 |
RONALD LABONTE | 95 |
Finding | 137 |
MEREDITH MINKLER | 153 |
Contributors | 171 |