{"title":"Health Capital and its Significance for Health Justice.","authors":"Ben Davies, Thomas Schramme","doi":"10.1093/phe/phaf001","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper outlines a novel framing of the normative significance of health by considering the idea of 'health capital'. Health capital is a set of health-related assets of individuals that enable them to pursue their interests and to collaborate with others. The specific contribution of this paper is to establish the notion of health capital beyond a metaphorical idea and to initially explore the repercussions of it for theories of health justice. We propose a sufficientarian approach to health capital justice. Our theory claims that social justice requires enabling people to achieve enough health capital to meet threats to health. This is a dynamic ideal, establishing claims of justice over time. The overarching goal is to avoid disadvantageous tipping points of health depletion.</p>","PeriodicalId":49136,"journal":{"name":"Public Health Ethics","volume":"18 1","pages":"phaf001"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11806382/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Public Health Ethics","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phaf001","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/4/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ETHICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper outlines a novel framing of the normative significance of health by considering the idea of 'health capital'. Health capital is a set of health-related assets of individuals that enable them to pursue their interests and to collaborate with others. The specific contribution of this paper is to establish the notion of health capital beyond a metaphorical idea and to initially explore the repercussions of it for theories of health justice. We propose a sufficientarian approach to health capital justice. Our theory claims that social justice requires enabling people to achieve enough health capital to meet threats to health. This is a dynamic ideal, establishing claims of justice over time. The overarching goal is to avoid disadvantageous tipping points of health depletion.
期刊介绍:
Public Health Ethics invites submission of papers on any topic that is relevant for ethical reflection about public health practice and theory. Our aim is to publish readable papers of high scientific quality which will stimulate debate and discussion about ethical issues relating to all aspects of public health. Our main criteria for grading manuscripts include originality and potential impact, quality of philosophical analysis, and relevance to debates in public health ethics and practice. Manuscripts are accepted for publication on the understanding that they have been submitted solely to Public Health Ethics and that they have not been previously published either in whole or in part. Authors may not submit papers that are under consideration for publication elsewhere, and, if an author decides to offer a submitted paper to another journal, the paper must be withdrawn from Public Health Ethics before the new submission is made.
The editorial office will make every effort to deal with submissions to the journal as quickly as possible. All papers will be acknowledged on receipt by email and will receive preliminary editorial review within 2 weeks. Papers of high interest will be sent out for external review. Authors will normally be notified of acceptance, rejection, or need for revision within 8 weeks of submission. Contributors will be provided with electronic access to their proof via email; corrections should be returned within 48 hours.