Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:59:26.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Paternalism and Health Law: Legal Promotion of a Healthy Lifestyle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Fernando D. Simões*
Affiliation:
University of Macau

Abstract

Research in lifestyle risks is becoming more and more important, particularly with reference to what is generally known as “unhealthy diets”. The Law is now firmly established as a prominent instrument of Public Health. There are several distinctive methods of legal intervention targeted at counteracting overweight and promoting healthier lifestyles. In this paper we examine several measures that have been adopted and discuss whether Law should foster healthy diets. Our purpose is to examine the threats of falling into a paternalistic attitude when devising any regulatory intervention aimed at promoting a healthier lifestyle.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Beck, Ulrich, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (London: Sage, 1992 Google Scholar).

2 Lupton, Deborah, “Risk as moral danger: the social and political functions of risk discourse in public health”, 23 International Journal of Health Services (1993), pp. 425435 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

3 Gabe, Jonathan, “Health, medicine and risk: the need for a sociological approach”, in Gabe, Jonathan (Ed.), Medicine, Health and Risk: Sociological Approaches (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995), pp. 117 Google Scholar.

4 Planzer, Simon and Alemanno, Alberto, “Lifestyle Risks: Conceptualising an Emerging Category of Research”, 4 European Journal of Risk Regulation (2010), at p. 335 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Liana Giorgi, “Lifestyle Risk: The Challenging Marriage of Two Thorny Concepts”, June 2011, available on the internet at <http://ssrn.com/abstract=1910570>, at p. 4 (last accessed on 5 August 2013).

5 Kavanagh, Anne and Broom, Dorothy, “Embodied Risk: My Body, Myself?”, 46 Social Science & Medicine (1998), at p. 438 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

6 Petersen, Alan, “Risk and the regulated self: the discourse of health promotion and the politics of uncertainty”, 32 Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology (1996), pp. 4457 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Swinburn, Boyd, Egger, Garry and Raza, Fezeela, “Dissecting obesogenic environments: the development and application of a framework for identifying and prioritizing environmental interventions for obesity”, 29 Preventive Medicine (1999), pp. 563570 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

8 Chopra, Mickey, Galbraith, Sarah and Darnton-Hill, Ian, “A global response to a global problem: the epidemic of overnutrition”, 80 Bulletin of the World Health Organization (2002), at p. 952 Google Scholar.

9 Thirlaway, Kathryn and Upton, Dominic, The psychology of lifestyle: promoting healthy behavior (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2009), pp. 67 Google Scholar.

10 World Health Organization European Ministerial Conference on Counteracting Obesity, “European Charter on counteracting obesity”, November 2006, available on the Internet at http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/87462/E89567.pdf (last accessed on 5 August 2013).

11 European Charter on counteracting obesity, supra note 10, at p. 1.

12 Ibid., pp. 2 et sqq.

13 White Paper on a Strategy on Nutrition, Overweight, and Obesity-related health issues, COM (2007) 279 final. For a critical assessment see Faeh, Andrea, “Obesity in Europe: The Strategy of the European Union from a Public Health Law Perspective”, 10 European Journal of Health Law (2012), pp. 6986 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 White Paper on a Strategy on Nutrition, supra note 13, at p. 2.

15 Gostin, Lawrence, Public Health Law: power, duty, restraint (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000)Google Scholar; Mello, Michelle, Studdert, David and Brennan, Troyen, “Obesity – The New Frontier of Public Health Law”, 354 The New England Journal of Medicine (2006), at p. 2601 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 White Paper on a Strategy on Nutrition, supra note 13, at p. 3.

17 European Charter on counteracting obesity, supra note 10, at p. 4.

18 See Gostin, Lawrence, “Law as a Tool to Facilitate Healthier Lifestyles and Prevent Obesity”, 297 Journal of the American Medical Association (2007), pp. 87 et sqq CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Michelle Mello, David Studdert and Troyen Brennan, “Obesity – The New Frontier of Public Health Law”, supra note 15, at p. 2602.

20 Simon Planzer and Alberto Alemanno, “Lifestyle Risks”, supra note 4, at p. 335.

21 Ibidem, pp. 335-6.

22 Straughan, Roger, “What's your poison?: The freedom to choose our food and drink”, 97 British Food Journal (1995), at p. 13 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Kathryn Thirlaway and Dominic Upton, The psychology of lifestyle: supra note 9,at p. 261.

24 Michelle Mello, David Studdert and Troyen Brennan, “Obesity – The New Frontier of Public Health Law”,supra note 15, at p. 2601.

25 Lawrence Gostin, Public health law: power, duty, restraint, supra note 15.

26 Kersh, Rogan and Morone, James, “The politics of obesity: seven steps to government action”, 21 Health Affaires, pp. 142-53CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

27 Ibidem.

28 Kersh, Rogan and Morone, James, “Obesity, Courts, and the New Politics of Public Health”, 30 Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law (2005), pp. 840841 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

29 Ibidem.

30 Brownell, Kelly, “The Chronicling of Obesity: Growing Awareness of Its Social, Economic, and Political Contexts”, 30 Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law (2005), pp. 961-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

31 Mill, John, Three Essays: On Liberty, Representative Government, the Subjection of Women (London: Oxford University Press 1975), at p. 15 Google Scholar.

32 Mill, John, On liberty (New York: Penguin Books 1985)Google Scholar.

33 Gostin, Lawrence, “A Broader Liberty: JS Mill, Paternalism, and the Public's Health”, 123 Public Health (2009), at p. 214 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Rogan Kersh and James Morone, “Obesity, Courts, and the New Politics”, supra note 28, pp. 846-7.

35 Ibidem, at p. 847.

36 See, e.g., Bennett, James and DiLorenzo, Thomas, The Food & Drink Police: America's Nannies, Busybodies & Petty Tyrants (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers 1999)Google Scholar.

37 Baker, Cynthia, “Bottom Lines and Waist Lines: State Governments Weigh in on Wellness”, 5 Indiana Health Law Review (2008), note 50, at p. 189 Google Scholar.

38 Gerald Dworkin, “Paternalism”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2010 Edition.

39 McGuinness, Stephen, “Time to cut the fat: the case for Government anti-obesity legislation”, 25 Journal of Law and Health (2012), pp. 5051 Google Scholar.

40 Kersh, Rogan, “The Politics of Obesity: A Current Assessment and Look Ahead”, 87 The Milbank Quarterly (2009), at p. 299 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

41 Schwartz, Marlene and Brownell, Kelly, “Actions Necessary to Prevent Childhood Obesity: Creating the Climate for Change”, 25 Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (2007), at p. 79 Google Scholar.

42 Brownell, Kelly et al., “The Need for Bold Action to Prevent Adolescent Obesity”, 45 Journal of Adolescent Health (2009), at p. S9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

43 Michelle Mello, David Studdert and Troyen Brennan, Obesity – The New Frontier of Public Health Law, supra note 15, p. 2602.

44 Id.

45 Kersh, Rogan and Morone, James, “How the Personal Becomes Political: Prohibitions, Public Health and Obesity”, 16 Studies in American Political Development (2002), at p. 172 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Gostin, Lawrence, “Trans Fat Bans and the Human Freedom: A Refutation”, 10 The American Journal of Bioethics (2010), at p. 33 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

47 Lawrence Gostin, “A Broader Liberty”, supra note 33, pp. 216-7.

48 Simon Planzer and Alberto Alemanno, “Lifestyle Risks”, supra note 4, at p. 336.

49 Lawrence Gostin, “A Broader Liberty”, supra note 33, p. 217.

50 Simon Planzer and Alberto Alemanno, “Lifestyle Risks”, supra note 4, atp. 337.

51 Rogan Kersh, “The Politics of Obesity: A Current Assessment”, supra note 40, at p. 300; Rogan Kersh and James Morone, “Obesity, Courts, and the New Politics”, supra note 28, at p. 848.

52 Moodie, Rob et al., “Childhood obesity – a sign of commercial success, but a market failure”, 1 International Journal of Pediatric Obesity (2006), pp. 134136 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53 Chopra, Mickey and Darnton-Hill, Ian, “Tobacco and obesity epidemics: not so different after all?”, 328 British Medical Journal (2004), pp. 15591560 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Rob Moodie et al., “Childhood obesity – a sign of commercial success”, supra note 52, p. 137.

55 Stephen McGuinness, “Time to cut the fat”, supra note 39, at p. 47.

56 Rogan Kersh and James Morone, “Obesity, Courts, and the New Politics”, supra note 28, at p. 849.

57 Jørgen Jensen, Tove Christensen, Jonas Nordström et al., “Food consumption and welfare economics – impacts of economic and political conditions”, May 2007, Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen,at p. 29.

58 Kelly Brownell, “The Chronicling of Obesity”, supra note 30, p. 955.

59 Rogan Kersh and James Morone, “Obesity, Courts, and the New Politics”, supra note 28, p. 844.

60 European Charter on counteracting obesity, supra note 10, at p. 1.

61 Lawrence Gostin, “Law as a Tool to Facilitate Healthier Lifestyles”, supra note 18, p. 87.

62 Rogan Kersh and James Morone, “Obesity, Courts, and the New Politics”, supra note 28, p. 839.

63 Epstein, Richard, “What (not) to do about obesity: a moderate Aristotelian answer”, 93 Georgetown Law Journal (2005)Google Scholar.

64 Lawrence Gostin, “A Broader Liberty”, supra note 33, p. 216.

65 Feinberg, Joel, Rights, justice, and the bounds of liberty: essays in social philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66 Ibidem.

67 Lawrence Gostin, “A Broader Liberty”, supra note 33, pp. 214-5.

68 Ibidem, at p. 215.

69 Lawrence Gostin, “A Broader Liberty”, supra note 33, at p. 217.

70 Ibidem.

71 See, e.g., Pope, Thaddeus, “Is paternalism really never justified? A response to Joel Feinberg”, 30 Oklahoma City University Law Rev (2005), pp. 121207 Google Scholar.

72 Turoldo, Fabrizio, “Responsibility as an Ethical Framework for Public Health Interventions”, 99 American Journal of Public Health (2009), p. 1199 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

73 Ibidem, p. 1201.

74 Lawrence Gostin, “A Broader Liberty”, supra note 33, p. 219.

75 Stephen McGuinness, “Time to cut the fat”, supra note 39, pp. 54 et sqq.

76 Idem, p. 54.

77 Stephen McGuinness, “Time to cut the fat”, supra note 39, p. 55.

78 See Bernell, Brent, “The History and Impact of the New York City Menu Labeling Law”, 65 Food and Drug Law Journal (2010), pp. 839872 Google Scholar.

79 Lawrence Gostin, “Law as a Tool to Facilitate Healthier Lifestyles”, supra note 18, p. 87.

80 McCabe, Margaret, “The Battle of the Bulge: Evaluating Law as a Weapon Against Obesity”, 3 Journal of Food Law and Policy (2007), at p. 141 Google Scholar.

81 Hawkes, Corinna, “Regulating Food Marketing to Young People Worldwide: Trends and Policy Drivers”, 97 American Journal of Public Health (2007), at p. 1962 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

82 Corinna Hawkes, “Marketing food to children: the global regulatory environment”, World Health Organization, 2004, available on the internet at <http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241591579.pdf>, pp. 19 and 43 (last accessed on 27 August 2012).

83 Capacci, Sara, Mazzocchi, Mario, Shankar, Bhavani et al., “Policies to promote healthy eating in Europe: a structured review of policies and their effectiveness”, 70 (3) Nutrition Reviews (2012), at p. 191 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

84 Harris, Jennifer and Bargh, John, “Television Viewing and Unhealthy Diet: Implications for Children and Media Interventions”, 24 Health Communication (2009), pp. 660673 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

85 Ramsey, William, “Rethinking Regulation of Advertising Aimed at Children”, 58 Federal Communications Law Journal (2006), pp. 384386 Google Scholar.

86 White Paper on a Strategy on Nutrition, supra note 13, at p. 6.

87 Jennifer Harris and John Bargh, “Television Viewing and Unhealthy Diet”, supra note 84, at p. 660.

88 Daily Mail Online, “Let there be toys! Judge throws out lawsuit brought against McDonald's Happy Meals by concerned mom”, 5 April 2012, available on the internet at <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125756/Judge-dismisses-suit-McDonalds-Happy-Meals-concerned-mom-Monet-Parham-California.html#ixzz24GkYvA4u> (last accessed on 27 August 2012).

89 Corinna Hawkes, “Regulating Food Marketing to Young People Worldwide”, supra note 81, at p. 1962.

90 Kelly Brownell, “The Chronicling of Obesity”, supra note 30, at p. 957.

91 Horgen, Katherine and Brownell, Kelly, “Policy change as a means for reducing the prevalence and impact of alcoholism, smoking, and obesity”, in Miller, William and Heather, Nick (eds.) Treating addictive behaviours, 2nd ed. (New York: Plenum Press, 1997), pp. 105118 Google Scholar.

92 Cynthia Baker, “Bottom Lines and Waist Lines”, supra note 37, at p. 190.

93 Jacobson, Michael and Brownell, Kelly, “Small taxes on soft drinks and snack foods to promote health”, 90 American Journal of Public Health (2000), pp. 854857 Google Scholar.

94 World Health Organization, “Frequently asked questions about the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health”, available on the internet at <http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/faq/en/index.html>, last accessed on 27 August 2012.

95 Sara Capacci, Mario Mazzocchi, Bhavani Shankar et al., “Policies to promote healthy eating in Europe”, supra note 83, at p. 194.

96 Ibidem.

97 See, e.g., Richard Epstein, “What (not) to do about obesity”, supra note 63.

98 Jørgen Jensen, Tove Christensen, Jonas Nordström et al., “Food consumption and welfare economics”, supra note 57, at p. 39.

99 Michael Jacobson and Kelly Brownell, “Small taxes on soft drinks”, supra note 93.

100 Lawrence Gostin, “Law as a Tool to Facilitate Healthier Lifestyles”, supra note 18, at p. 89.

101 Michelle Mello, David Studdert and Troyen Brennan, Obesity — The New Frontier of Public Health Law, supra note 15, at p. 2604.

102 Stephen McGuinness, “Time to cut the fat”, supra note 39, p. 56.

103 Edelman, Gabriel, “The New York City Trans Fat Ban: A Healthy Law”, 17 Journal of Law and Policy (2008), at p. 271 Google Scholar.

104 Ibidem, at p. 291.

105 Sara Capacci, Mario Mazzocchi, Bhavani Shankar et al., “Policies to promote healthy eating in Europe”, supra note 83, at p. 195.

106 Resnik, David, “Trans Fat Bans and Human Freedom”, 10 The American Journal of Bioethics (2010), at p. 29 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

107 Ibidem.

108 Ibidem.