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Freedom of choice and the tobacco endgame

Endgame proposals strive for a tobacco‐free (or at least cigarette‐free) society. Some endgame proposals are radical and include, for example, a complete ban on cigarettes. Setting aside empirical worries, one worry is ethical: would such proposals not go too far in interfering with individual freed...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Schmidt, Andreas T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9298279/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34671993
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12967
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author Schmidt, Andreas T.
author_facet Schmidt, Andreas T.
author_sort Schmidt, Andreas T.
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description Endgame proposals strive for a tobacco‐free (or at least cigarette‐free) society. Some endgame proposals are radical and include, for example, a complete ban on cigarettes. Setting aside empirical worries, one worry is ethical: would such proposals not go too far in interfering with individual freedom? I argue that concerns around freedom do not speak against endgame proposals, including strong proposals such as a ban on cigarettes. I first argue that when balancing freedom with public health goals in tobacco control, the latter win out. But I also argue that, in principle, a concern with freedom itself already justifies endgame measures. First, such measures can increase people's lifetime freedom, that is, the freedom they have across their entire lives. Second, such measures can facilitate a better interpersonal distribution of freedom by increasing aggregate societal freedom and by reducing inequalities. Overall, freedom does not preclude strict tobacco control but supports it.
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spelling pubmed-92982792022-07-21 Freedom of choice and the tobacco endgame Schmidt, Andreas T. Bioethics Original Articles Endgame proposals strive for a tobacco‐free (or at least cigarette‐free) society. Some endgame proposals are radical and include, for example, a complete ban on cigarettes. Setting aside empirical worries, one worry is ethical: would such proposals not go too far in interfering with individual freedom? I argue that concerns around freedom do not speak against endgame proposals, including strong proposals such as a ban on cigarettes. I first argue that when balancing freedom with public health goals in tobacco control, the latter win out. But I also argue that, in principle, a concern with freedom itself already justifies endgame measures. First, such measures can increase people's lifetime freedom, that is, the freedom they have across their entire lives. Second, such measures can facilitate a better interpersonal distribution of freedom by increasing aggregate societal freedom and by reducing inequalities. Overall, freedom does not preclude strict tobacco control but supports it. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-10-20 2022-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9298279/ /pubmed/34671993 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12967 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Bioethics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Schmidt, Andreas T.
Freedom of choice and the tobacco endgame
title Freedom of choice and the tobacco endgame
title_full Freedom of choice and the tobacco endgame
title_fullStr Freedom of choice and the tobacco endgame
title_full_unstemmed Freedom of choice and the tobacco endgame
title_short Freedom of choice and the tobacco endgame
title_sort freedom of choice and the tobacco endgame
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9298279/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34671993
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12967
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