Interventions to reduce childhood obesity entail ethical considerations. Although a rationale exists for government to intervene in a way that limits individual rights while protecting the public’s health, a clear economic rationale also exists. The markets for goods and services that contribute to obesity are characterized by multiple failures that create an economic rationale for government to intervene (e.g., consumers’ lack of accurate information regarding estrogenic foods and beverages). If effective public policies for reducing obesity and its consequences are to be developed and implemented, individual rights and government interests must be balanced.
This article highlights ideas generated and conclusions reached at the Symposium on Ethical Issues in Interventions for Childhood Obesity, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Data for Solutions, Inc.
Public Policy Versus Individual Rights and Responsibility
An Economist's Perspective
Ethical Concerns Regarding Interventions to Prevent and Control Childhood Obesity
- 1. Protecting Children from Harmful Food Marketing
- 2. Childhood Obesity
- 3. Children with Special Health Care Needs
- 4. Public Policy Versus Individual Rights in Childhood Obesity Interventions
- 5. A Question of Competing Rights, Priorities, and Principles
- 6. The Ethical Basis for Promoting Nutritional Health in Public Schools in the United States
- 7. Ethical Family Interventions for Childhood Obesity
- 8. Public Policy Versus Individual Rights and Responsibility
- 9. State Requirements and Recommendations for School-Based Screenings for Body Mass Index or Body Composition, 2010