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Johnson, Tess, Ndlovu, Lerato, Baiyegunhi, Omolara O, Lora, Wezzie and Desmond, Nicola 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2874-8569
(2024)
'Coercive public health policies need context-specific ethical justifications.'. Monash Bioethics Review.
(In Press)
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Abstract
Public health policies designed to improve individual and population health may involve coercion. These coercive policies require ethical justification, and yet it is unclear in the public health ethics literature which ethical concepts might justify coercion, and what their limitations are in applying across contexts. In this paper, we analyse a number of concepts from Western bioethics, including the harm principle, paternalism, the public interest, and a duty of easy rescue. We find them plausible justifications for coercion in theory, but when applied to case studies, including HIV testing in Malawi, vaccine mandates in South Africa, and prohibitions of antibiotic use in livestock in the EU, their limitations become clear. We argue that the context-specificity of ethical justifications for coercion has been overlooked, and there is more work needed to identify context-relevant ethical justifications for coercive policies in various settings and for various populations, rather than relying on universalising Western bioethical justifications across all contexts.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | W General Medicine. Health Professions > W 50 Medical ethics |
| Faculty: Department: | Clinical Sciences & International Health > Clinical Sciences Department Clinical Sciences & International Health > International Public Health Department |
| Digital Object Identifer (DOI): | https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-024-00218-x |
| SWORD Depositor: | JISC Pubrouter |
| Depositing User: | JISC Pubrouter |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Nov 2024 09:52 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Nov 2024 09:52 |
| URI: | https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/25524 |
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