University of Helsinki
The CEACG is arranging the conference Lifestyle diseases: Responsibility and Ethics in Helsinki 11 -12 June 2018 together with the Nordic Committee on Bioethics, a committee underneath NordForsk. A programme draft can be found here: Lifestyle Disease – Responsibility and Ethics
Background and Scope: Non-communicable diseases (NCD), such as arteriosclerotic vascular disease, heart diseases and stroke, osteoporosis and Type II diabetes, are associated with certain behavioral choices and ways of living. According to Eurostat and the WHO, life expectancy in Europe is currently decreasing due to smoking, drinking and obesity.
The massive evidence on the ways in which NCDs can be prevented and treated by citizens’ lifestyle adjustments has come to orient the ways in which their prevalence and harm are regulated in societies. It has also opened up new possibilities to govern health-related behaviours as part of a “enlightened choices scheme”.
However, a rigorous appliance of such a scheme involves also some ethical dilemmas. For example, this causal model may downplay the fact that health-related hardships are unpredictable and often happen by chance. Furthermore, the kind of knowledge that builds on correlations in large data sets, however strong the evidence, cannot say anything about a specific individual’s place in the statistics. A third dilemma is that while the systems of chance and likelihood can make up explanative patterns they are seldom on their own sufficient for taking into account of societal structures and human culture.
The aim of the conference is to address the new emphasis on the individual’s responsibility and choices in view of collectivist health policies and solidary-based welfare systems. It strives at unfolding the concept of lifestyle disease and its interaction with ethical dimensions of governance.
In the Nordic countries, the very first measures to addressed peoples’ behaviours for example concerning hygiene, food and alcohol intake were not primarily framed in terms of health. They addressed questions such as poverty and vagrancy. During the later part of the 20th century, welfare- and health-related regulation of citizens’ behaviours became integrated in the systems of the Nordic welfare state. Strong principles in the Nordic welfare state ethos pertains to institutional collectivism, inclusion and universalist principles of service provision.
Aims and Conference Structure: The conference will, to begin with, address the current health situation in Europe with regards to lifestyle-related diseases. What are their root causes and political implications?
Second, the conference provides a forum for public health and social science research to discuss ethical considerations surrounding lifestyle-related disease and its governance principles in the Nordics and elsewhere. These include aspects of how to address responsibility (individual vs. society), as well as the role of corporate behaviour in corruption of health and well-being. Examples are presented from the fields of alcohol, drugs and gambling in order to highlight the ways in which poor health choices are attached to an individualized health agenda, and influenced by neoliberal policies and corporate power. Moderating intake of fat, sugar and salt is also presented as cases in point.
The event will end with a panel discussion concerning the existing and possible instruments for influencing people’s lifestyles in contemporary Nordic welfare societies. The fiscal interests related to consumption of addictive products are high, and politics catering for interests of alcohol, food, and gambling industry all stress individual responsibility (“responsible” consumption).
Practical Information:
The conference is targeted at academics, policy makers, industry representatives, public health professionals, and the general public.
It is free of charge, but participants cover their own travel and accommodation.
Venue: Unioininkatu Juhlahuoneisto (Unioninkatu 33, Helsinki City Center)
Contact: Senior Adviser Marianne Minge (NordForsk) marianne.minge@nordforsk.no