Public Health Ethics Advance Access originally published online on August 4, 2008
Public Health Ethics 2008 1(3):210-222; doi:10.1093/phe/phn029
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J. S. Mill and the American Law of Quarantine
Matthews University Distinguished Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law
Corresponding author: Northeastern University School of Law, 400 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Tel.: 617 363 2019; Fax: 617 373 5056; Email: w.parmet{at}neu.edu
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This paper looks at the American law of quarantine in light of the teachings of John Stuart Mill, whose harm principle has often been used to justify the practice of isolating and/or quarantining individuals to prevent the spread of an infectious disease. The paper shows that despite important parallels between quarantine law and both the authorizing and prohibitive aspects of Mill's harm principle, the contemporary law of quarantine does not reflect either Mill's concern for the potential abuse of executive authority nor his recognition that quarantine is only ethically justified when the broader public health policy environment in which quarantine is applied is itself ethically sound.
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