The Ethics of Screening in Health Care and Medicine

Medical or health-oriented screening programs are amongst the most debated aspects of health care and public health practices in health care and public health ethics, as well as health policy discussions. In spite of this, most treatments of screening in the research literature restrict themselves to isolated scientific aspects, sometimes complemented by economic analyses or loose speculations regarding policy aspects. At the same time, recent advances in medical genetics and technology, as well as a rapidly growing societal focus on public health concerns, inspires an increase in suggested or recently started screening programs.

This book involves an in-depth analysis of the ethical, political and philosophical issues related to health-oriented screening programs. It explores the considerations that arise when heath care interacts with other societal institutions on a large scale, as is the case with screening: What values may be promoted or compromised by screening programs? What conflicts of values do typically arise – both internally and in relation to the goals of health care, on the one hand, and the goals of public health and the general society, on the other? What aspects of screening are relevant for determining whether it should be undertaken or not and how it should be organised in order to remain defensible? What implications does the ethics of screening have for health care ethics as a whole?

These questions are addressed by applying philosophical methods of conceptual analysis, as well as models and theories from moral and political philosophy, medical ethics, and public health ethics, to a large number of ongoing and proposed screening programs which makes this book the first comprehensive work on the ethics of screening. Analyses and suggestions are made that are of potential interest to health care staff, medical researchers, policy makers and the general public.

• Autonomy through Screening
• Ethics of Screening
• Future health problems
• Medical Screening
• Medical screening programs
• Neonatal Screening
• Professional medical ethics
• Public health screening
• Screening in Health Carea
• Screening in Medicine

“The description of the different types of screening offered to the population is characterized by a high level of completeness and exhaustive documentation. It includes the most recent developments in this field, offering even to non-expert readers the possibility of acquiring a good level of knowledge. … All the chapters of the book are full of complete and updated information from the scientific literature, using language accessible to non-experts, and integrated with useful notes.” (Lorenzo Simonato, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, Vol. 36, 2015)

“The book that came into being is the first comprehensive work on the ethical issues related to screening in medicine. … The Ethics of Screening in Health Care and Medicine is practical philosophy at its best: scientifically well informed, balanced, carefully argued and highly relevantfor the practice of medicine and health care.” (Pekka Louhiala, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, February, 2012)

“This book broadly investigates the ethics associated with screening programs done in both clinical and public health settings. … The audience may include advanced ethics students, scholars, practitioners, and especially health policymakers (particularly those involved in the establishment and evaluation of screening programs). … This book may be of interest to individuals searching for more guidance on Wilson and Jungner’s principles … .” (Bradley Steven Olsen Thornock, Doody’s Review Service, March, 2012)

• Dept. Learning, Informatics,, Management & Ethics (LIME), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

  Niklas Juth

• Dept. Philosophy, Linguistics &, Theory of Science, University of Göteborg, Göteborg, Sweden

  Christian Munthe

Policies and ethics