Women, men and public health-how the choice of normative theory affects resource allocation.
Women live longer than men in almost all countries, but men are more privileged in terms of power, influence, resources and probably morbidity. This investigation aims at illustrating how the choice of normative framework affects judgements about the fairness in these sex differences, and about desired societal change. The selected theories are welfare economics, health sector extra-welfarism, justice as fairness and feminist justice. By means of five Swedish proposals aiming at improving the population's health or "sex equity", facts and values are applied to resource allocation. Although we do not claim a specific ethical foundation, it seems to us that the feminist criterion has great potential in public health policy. The overall conclusion is that the normative framework must be explicitly discussed and stated in issues of women's and men's health.
Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, SE-901 85 Umeå, Sweden. anna.mansdotter@fhi.se
Anna
A
Månsdotter
Lars
L
Lindholm
Ann
A
Ohman
D028663:Ethical Theory; D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity; D011209:Power, Psychological; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012935:Social Justice; D012945:Social Values; D012946:Social Welfare; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology