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Individual responsibility for health - moral issues regarding lifestyles

The European Commission, DG XII, has published the proceedings of a European workshop entitled "Individual responsibility for health - moral issues regarding lifestyles", held in Delft, the Netherlands, on 20 and 21 January 1995. The workshop was funded by the Community's spec...

The European Commission, DG XII, has published the proceedings of a European workshop entitled "Individual responsibility for health - moral issues regarding lifestyles", held in Delft, the Netherlands, on 20 and 21 January 1995. The workshop was funded by the Community's specific RTD programme in the field of biomedicine and health (BIOMED). The "Research on biomedical ethics" strand of the BIOMED programme addresses general standards for the respect of human dignity and the respect of the individual in the context of biomedical research and its clinical applications. In particular, the programme addresses fundamental values, and the workshop in Delft aimed to respond to this. The workshop attempted to relate ethical views on people's responsibility for themselves and for others to issues of health and healthcare. Smoking and drinking were used as illustrative examples, but the workshop's findings suggest that the ethical considerations apply to a much wider spectrum of healthcare policies. Contributors to the workshop addressed the ethical issues from the viewpoints of both the public and medical practitioners.