An Ethics Framework for Analyzing Paternalism in Public Health Policies and Interventions

The purpose of this document is to equip public health actors to conduct an ethical analysis of policies that are said to be paternalistic. It aims to provide the conceptual tools needed to identify paternalistic policies and assess the ethical burden with which they may be associated. The document also offers practitioners a clear and structured approach intended to guide ethical deliberation about paternalistic policies.

  • Paternalism in a nutshell
  • Some examples of policies called paternalistic
  • An approach and tools for the ethical analysis of paternalistic policies

This document is designed to provide an explicit and reasoned approach to conducting an ethical analysis of paternalistic public health policies. In choosing to frame the debate in terms of paternalism one risks assigning disproportionate weight to certain values within the deliberative process. The third step in our approach aims, among other things, to compensate for the effect of such framing.

To learn more, visit the website of the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy - NCCHPP (http://www.ncchpp.ca/en/)

An Ethics Framework for Analyzing Paternalism in Public Health Policies and Interventions
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ISBN (Digital)
978-2-550-86855-2
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