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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Leonard H. Glantz, JD, School of Public Health, Boston University, 715 Albany Street (Talbot Building), Boston, MA 02118 and Leonard Glantz, JD, Health Law, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, Talbot Building, Boston, MA 02446, 617-638-4644, lglantz@bu.edu.

This presentation will explore the ethical requirement of “truth-telling” in the context of public health messages designed to change individual behavior.

Both legal rules and ethical standards require physicians to obtain a patient's informed consent prior to patients making treatment decisions. The doctrine was designed to change paternalistic medical practices in which physicians decided what treatment was best for patients to undertake. At times physicians would withhold material information from patients so they would comply with medical advice. The overall goal of the informed consent doctrine is to enable patients to intelligently accept or reject medical advice. It was the end of the “doctor knows best” school of thought.

Public health messages, on the other hand, are currently designed to convince individuals to change their behaviors. For example, the goal of a message might be to get people to stop smoking or lose weight. These messages have elements of the medical paternalism that previously existed. This raises the ethical question of “how honest” and “complete” the information provided in public health messages must be. This presentation will explore the applicability of the informed consent model to public health messages.

Learning Objectives:

1.Analyze the truthfulness of public health messages 2.Identify the ethical issues presented by behavior change messages
• Discusss the applicability of the "informed consent model" to public health messages.

Keywords: Ethics, Media Campaigns

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No