14 DAY TRIAL // People's lifestyle in modern society as well as their freedoms are actually limiting the effectiveness of public health interventions, said Professor Elizabeth Murphy, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the University of Leicester’s College of Social Science, in her inaugural lecture.
She also talked about the issues of civil liberty, privacy and individual choice, which are limiting the effectiveness of the Government to solve public health problems through legislation.
Public health issues like smoking, drinking and diet are harder to address today, as the Government has a limited power of intervention.
This is happening because people have individual lifestyles, they can make choices of their own and are free, so the Government has no method of coercion.
Previously, the Government was involved in improving sanitary conditions and air quality, ans also in controlling infectious diseases, but today, it is unable to regulate issues like drinking, diet or smoking, said the Professor.
She compared today’s governments lack of power to influence lifestyle choices that are contributing or causing conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer or diabetes, to the progress made in the 19th and 20th century that helped eradicate diseases through sanitation, hygiene, air and water quality improvement programs.
Professor Murphy's lecture was based on data gathered from a study that looked at the choices made by new mothers in feeding their babies during the first two years of their lives, breast and bottle feeding included.
She noted the way that mothers endorsed, negotiated, resisted, reconstructed or even refused the advice of experts about their child's nutrition.
Elizabeth Murphy said that there is no way that today's problems could be solved through a legislation, and reminded what Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech last year:
“When it comes to public health, you can’t just reach for the levers of legislation ... the public health problems of today are increasingly the consequence of perfectly legal personal decisions made in private spaces.”
“I will explore how it is possible within states committed to respect for the autonomy and privacy of individuals, to promote the health and welfare of the population without riding roughshod over individual choice and freedom,” added Professor Murphy said.
“I shall discuss the ways in which health-related lifestyle choices have become increasingly moralized so that failure to conform to expert advice about health-promoting behaviors raises questions about one’s standing as a fit and proper person,” she concluded.