Ethics, responsibility and social patterning of risky health behaviors

Abstract

Debates over individual responsibility for health outcomes are nothing new in American society. Historian Howard Leichter observes that “[t]he 20th century began and ended with many of the nation’s health policymakers and opinion shapers blaming individuals for their own ill health.” If, for example, individuals have knowingly behaved in ways that damage their own health, it is unclear what obligation society owes that individual to meliorate the resulting bad health outcomes.