Political Theory and Public Health

Abstract

In recent years, the traditional focus on health as integral to clinical medicine has given way to a broader and more encompassing public health perspective. This move away from clinical health follows important developments such as the introduction of a population perspective in health sciences and practice, the role of social determinants in health outcomes, the realization that health easily bypasses national boundaries and must be re-conceived globally, the onset of technological innovations (such as genetic screening or germ-line therapies), the reconfiguration of institutional agents such as state, community and market in health and their relation to new “sites” of health interventions and health behavior. Rethinking health along these novel lines rapidly suggests that the traditional tools as developed in medical or clinical ethics are insufficient to deal with the many ethical and political issues that characterize the public health field. This panel examines what the insights of political theory can contribute to illuminate the normative challenges that have emerged in recent years or the various approaches for responding to them.

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