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Von Hügel Institute

for Critical Catholic Inquiry
 

Contemporary discourse in bioethics and healthcare policy frequently arrives at an impasse caused by disagreement, often unspoken, about what constitutes ‘health’. Different understandings of ‘ill/health’ end up conflating different and sometimes contradictory moral considerations, which marrs political debate and generates insoluble impasses in policy making. As a result, politicians, academics, health practitioners and patients appear to be speaking different languages and entertaining widely diverse expectations.

Can a single definition of ill/health across different fields be arrived at? The strictly legal definition of the right to health is unworkable, as it involves an even more controversial ‘right to happiness’. From a faith perspective, for instance, being healthy does not simply mean the absence of pain. Similarly, mental ill/health in political debates is often addressed as a matter of diversity and equality rather than in terms of disability.

PROGRAMME

SPEAKERS & ABSTRACTS

SPECIAL WORKSHOP ISSUE: papers from the conference have been published as a special journal issue of The New Bioethics (Vol. 22, Issue 1, 2016).

For questions please contact the project coordinators: Dr Thana Campos; Dr Lidia Ripamonti

 

 

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