Abstracts
Abstract
When is it fair that some people are less healthy than others due to their own individual choices and preferences? In this paper, I explore two alternative answers. The first is a luck-egalitarian account that holds people responsible for choices that society could have reasonably expected them to avoid. I argue that this account is indeterminate and go on to sketch an alternative proposal based on Rawls’s idea of a “social division of responsibility.” This latter approach connects the notion of responsibility for health to the social conditions under which health-related behaviour is developed.
Résumé
Dans quelles circonstances est-il juste que certaines personnes soient en moins bonne santé que d’autres à cause de leurs propres choix et préférences individuels ? Dans cet article, j’examine deux avenues de réponse. La première est une explication en termes d’égalitarisme de la chance qui tient les gens responsables des choix que, selon une attente raisonnable de la société, ils auraient dû éviter. Je défends que cette explication est peu concluante. Par la suite, j’esquisse une autre proposition qui s’appuie sur l’idée rawslienne d’une « division sociale de la responsabilité ». Cette seconde approche rattache la responsabilité de la santé aux conditions sociales dans lesquelles les comportements liés à la santé se développent.
Appendices
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