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Voluntary Risks to HealthThe Ethical Issues
Robert M. Veatch, PhD
JAMA. 1980;243(1):50-55.
Abstract
The discovery that health status is affected by personal life-styles and apparently voluntary health risks poses new problems. It has potential impact on clinical practice, health insurance, and theories of health and disease. Five major problems need attention. First, are these health-risk behaviors really voluntary? Five responses are explored: several other models (the medical, psychological, social structural, and multicausal models) all challenge the assumption of voluntary behavior. Second, are some sufficiently in the public interest that they ought to be subsidized? Third, does justice require that persons bear the costs of truly voluntary health risks? Fourth, what policies should apply to cost-saving, health-risk behavior? Finally, does the voluntary health-risks theme make life too rational and calculating? These issues must be dealt with in future health planning and clinical decision making.
(JAMA 243:50-55, 1980)
Author Affiliations
From the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences, The Hastings Center, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Footnotes
Reprint requests to The Hastings Center, 360 Broadway, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706 (Dr Veatch).
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