Nudging and obesity : how to get rid of paternalism?

This paper reflects upon the conditions how ‘nudging’ can change individual health choices without being paternalistic and therefore can be defined as an instrument of social justice? So many problems we are facing in today’s nursing are situated at the intersection of autonomy and heteronomy, i.e. why well informed and autonomous people make unhealthy lifestyle choices. If people do not choose what they want, this is not simply caused by their lack of character or capability, but also by the fact that absolute autonomy is impossible; also autonomous individuals are ‘contaminated’ by heteronymous aspects, by influences from ‘outside’. In an earlier article I made an analysis of my neologism 'oughtonomy' to support the thesis that when it comes down to human existence, autonomy and heteronomy are intertwined, more than they are merely opposites. Although nudging might be of help in many nursing settings, we should evaluate it with the same criticism as we judge upon paternalism. Despite the potential of nudging for nursing, there is a risk to put the nurse again in the position of the paternalistic outsider who knows how people should behave. But maybe the awareness of the oughtonomous decisions we all make in our lives, can help us to understand why people act mindless in some situations or why we choose what we choose. Knowing this is one thing, giving people the authority of an expert to know what is better off for others, another. Despite the potential of the last, the former concept does not legitimate paternalistic interferences in patient’s lifestyle

Sense, existence and justice, or, how to live in a secular world?

It has been taken for granted that in western modernity we are dealing with a secularised world, an atheistic world where religion is no longer reigning the public sphere. In other words: a world where sense lies outside the world towards a world where sense is situated within it. If we follow the line of thought French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy sets out in his books The Sense of the World and Dis-closure, we have to think world not as what has its sense within itself, but as what is sense itself. To live in a secular world, means to live in a world which is sense, a world that has become responsible for itself but never closes in itself. Nancy, thereby inspired by Martin Heidegger, claims that in a secularised world it is no longer a question of whether the world has sense, but that the world is sense. If we want to be atheists today, Nancy concludes, we no longer have to do with the question, “why is there something in general?” but with the answer, “there is something, and that alone makes sense

Food Taxes: A New Holy Grail?

In an effort to reduce the growing prevalence of overweight and obesity, food taxes have been introduced in several European countries, the so-called ‘obesitax’. As yet little evidence is at hand, policy measures are being taken to counterweight the consumption of unhealthy food or the increasing diet-related diseases. Several questions need to be discussed, starting from a general perspective: can food taxes become an appropriate and just policy measure to reduce overweight and obesity and therefore increase consumer’s health? The implementation of an effective and fair food tax is an exercise riddled with uncertainty. Not only is there a need for evidence on the health and economic impact of food taxes, we also have to think about a conceptual and ethical discussion concerning the balance between health imperatives and public health on the one hand, and social and ethical standards on the other hand

Lifestyle: bioethics at a critical juncture

More than ever, the way we live our lives has become subject to our own decisionmaking. Our whole way of living, in particular what we do to our body, has become the expression of personal lifestyle choices. Because we can make changes to our body according to our own individual preferences, every aspect of our life begins to be seen as the result of individual and voluntary decisions. The comparison with advertising is pertinent here: we should no longer accept the way we are but can choose from a variety of options. Go to any supermarket and look around: innumerable products are promoted because of their healthy ingredients, whether to lower our cholesterol or heighten our natural resistance. And, of course, we buy what is on offer.</jats:p