Health, Disease and Naturalism: Hausman on the Public Value of Health

Abstract

Whether health and disease are value-free concepts is a matter of long-standing debate. This question is relevant to public health ethics because the distinction between health and disease is frequently employed to delineate the public interest or justify state involvement. This article evaluates a recent attempt by Hausman to both defend a naturalistic (or non-evaluative) account of health and disease, and provide an account of the public value of health. I argue that Hausman's naturalistic account of health cannot be maintained. As well as undermining the naturalist project more generally, this has two specific implications. First, it undermines Hausman's claim that functional efficiencies—unlike health states—can be ranked in a value-free manner. Secondly, it affects Hausman's account of the public value of health.

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