Coercive care: the ethics of choice in health and medicine

Abstract

Coercive Care: the ethics of choice in health and medicine asks probing and challenging questions regarding the use of coercion in health care and the social services. When is coercion legitimate and when is it illegitimate? Should HIV-positive people, with a ‘dangerous’ lifestyle, be put in custody? Is it morally acceptable to put a pregnant addict in custody in order to secure the health of her unborn child? If a person cannot stop abusing drugs, should she be treated, against her will, for her addiction? The present volume argues for respect of the autonomy of the individual and refutes the system of paternalism whereby citizens are coerced into care in order to safeguard the interests of other people. The book combines philosophical analysis with comparative studies of social policy and law in a large number of industrialized countries and proposes an ideal of judicial security on a global scale. Torbjörn Tännsjö deftly explores the multiple dimensions of the issue of coercion and breaks new ground in the debate of bioethics through his plea for the liberalization and harmonization of European, North American, Australian and Japanese laws regulating the use of coercion in care.