{"title":"Kantian political philosophy, coercion, and public health.","authors":"Remco J L van Dijk, Justin S Bernstein","doi":"10.1007/s40592-025-00239-0","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Many public health policies are coercive and therefore, they require moral justification. Kantian political philosophy is an under-explored but appealing approach to public health ethics. According to the Kantian approach, which is centred around freedom as independence, the state has an important role in protecting that freedom. In doing so, the state is justified to use coercion. To illustrate the Kantian approach, we consider its implications in the context of coercive vaccination policy. We show coercive vaccination policies are justified, because the state is needed to provide determinacy, because such policies are needed to guarantee the systematic enjoyment of the right to freedom, and because such policies reduce the risk for dependence on others.</p>","PeriodicalId":43628,"journal":{"name":"Monash Bioethics Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Monash Bioethics Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-025-00239-0","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ETHICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Many public health policies are coercive and therefore, they require moral justification. Kantian political philosophy is an under-explored but appealing approach to public health ethics. According to the Kantian approach, which is centred around freedom as independence, the state has an important role in protecting that freedom. In doing so, the state is justified to use coercion. To illustrate the Kantian approach, we consider its implications in the context of coercive vaccination policy. We show coercive vaccination policies are justified, because the state is needed to provide determinacy, because such policies are needed to guarantee the systematic enjoyment of the right to freedom, and because such policies reduce the risk for dependence on others.
期刊介绍：
Monash Bioethics Review provides comprehensive coverage of traditional topics and emerging issues in bioethics. The Journal is especially concerned with empirically-informed philosophical bioethical analysis with policy relevance. Monash Bioethics Review also regularly publishes empirical studies providing explicit ethical analysis and/or with significant ethical or policy implications. Produced by the Monash University Centre for Human Bioethics since 1981 (originally as Bioethics News), Monash Bioethics Review is the oldest peer reviewed bioethics journal based in Australia–and one of the oldest bioethics journals in the world.
An international forum for empirically-informed philosophical bioethical analysis with policy relevance.
Includes empirical studies providing explicit ethical analysis and/or with significant ethical or policy implications.
One of the oldest bioethics journals, produced by a world-leading bioethics centre.
Publishes papers up to 13,000 words in length.
Unique New Feature: All Articles Open for Commentary
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