{"id":4305,"date":"2022-06-27T11:18:34","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T10:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=4305"},"modified":"2022-06-27T11:18:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T10:18:34","slug":"is-neoliberalism-bad-for-our-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2022\/06\/27\/is-neoliberalism-bad-for-our-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Is neoliberalism bad for our health?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kate Lyle, Susie Weller, Gabby Samuel, Anneke Lucassen<\/p>\n

Neoliberalism promotes the rights and responsibilities of individuals to make their own choices and
\nmanage their own risks, and as a political approach dominates Western societies. As such,
\nneoliberalism has driven a preoccupation with quantifying and managing risks within society; the
\nidea being that clarifying the risks associated with particular activities liberates individuals to make
\ninformed choices and, crucially, accept responsibility for the consequences of their decisions.<\/p>\n

The main governmental tool for controlling risk and protecting individual autonomy is regulation. We live in an increasingly regulated society in the UK, with new legislations and updates plugging
\napparent policy gaps as they are revealed. Nowhere is this more visible than in healthcare, which is
\nincreasingly regulated by a myriad of legislation, regulatory bodies, codes of practice, and
\nprofessional bodies acting to control the permitted activity of healthcare professionals and
\nresearchers. A series of high-profile scandals \u2013 such as the unauthorised retention of organs in
\nhospitals, or Dr Shipman murdering hundreds of his patients \u2013 have been catalyst for new laws and
\nregulations. Medical research in particular is strictly controlled, usually requiring extensive review
\nand compliance with a range of regulations, the aim being to protect individuals from harm whilst at
\nthe same time enabling research to improve healthcare delivery. But is it possible to meet these
\naims simultaneously by relying on regulation alone, and are there attendant risks?<\/p>\n

The emphasis on quantifying risks and individualising responsibility within neoliberal systems has
\nencouraged an approach to research ethics that is preoccupied with compliance to regulation, and
\nfor example, the detailed documentation of consent rather than attention to the content of that
\nconsent. We argue this can risk overlooking the real ethical issues at stake in particular contexts. In
\nour paper \u2018Beyond regulatory approaches to ethics: Making space for ethical preparedness in<\/a>
\nhealthcare research<\/a>\u2019, we use a case study involving a point-of-care genetic test to demonstrate how
\na focus on regulation can lose sight of the contextual issues and obstruct valuable research.<\/p>\n

We argue that we need to broaden the focus from compliance with regulation, towards a system
\nthat facilitates \u2018ethical preparedness\u2019 within the research community. We describe ethical
\npreparedness as being willing and able to work in morally appropriate ways. In practice, this means
\nforsaking notions of universal, \u2018off the shelf\u2019 solutions to problems, and resisting the dominance of
\nregulatory and procedural approaches, including the over-reliance on consent as a means of
\nmanaging risks. Instead, emphasis should be placed on creating spaces, and providing the resources
\nand support necessary to empower clinicians and researchers to work through ethical issues as they
\narise.<\/p>\n

Without attending to ethical preparedness, research ethics too often falls to the neoliberal approach
\nof regulation, which not only does little to ensure ethics in practice, but may also stifle valuable
\nresearch \u2013 and this is not in the interests of anybody\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paper title:<\/strong> Beyond regulatory approaches to ethics: Making space for ethical preparedness in<\/a>
\nhealthcare research<\/a><\/p>\n

Author:<\/strong> Kate Lyle 1,2 ; Susie Weller 1,2 ; Gabby Samuel 1,3 ; Anneke Lucassen 1,2,4<\/p>\n

Affiliations:<\/strong>
\n1 Clinical Ethics, Law and Society (CELS); Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford,
\nUK
\n2 Clinical Ethics, Law and Society (CELS) – Southampton, Faculty of Medicine, University of
\nSouthampton, UK
\n3 Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, King\u2019s College London, Strand, UK
\n4 Centre for Personalised Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK<\/p>\n

Competing interests<\/strong>: There are no competing interests<\/p>\n

Social media accounts of post authors<\/strong>:\u00a0@kvlyle<\/a> @cels_uos<\/a> @eppigen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kate Lyle, Susie Weller, Gabby Samuel, Anneke Lucassen Neoliberalism promotes the rights and responsibilities of individuals to make their own choices and manage their own risks, and as a political approach dominates Western societies. As such, neoliberalism has driven a preoccupation with quantifying and managing risks within society; the idea being that clarifying the […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8057,397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-ethics","category-research-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nIs neoliberalism bad for our health? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2022\/06\/27\/is-neoliberalism-bad-for-our-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is neoliberalism bad for our health? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Kate Lyle, Susie Weller, Gabby Samuel, Anneke Lucassen Neoliberalism promotes the rights and responsibilities of individuals to make their own choices and manage their own risks, and as a political approach dominates Western societies. 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