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Public Health Ethics Advance Access originally published online on January 22, 2009
Public Health Ethics 2009 2(1):84-88; doi:10.1093/phe/phn041
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. Available online at www.phe.oxfordjournals.org

The Limits of Public Health: A Response

Mark A. Rothstein*

University of Louisville School of Medicine

* Corresponding author: Mark A. Rothstein, Herbert F. Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine and Director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law, University of Louisville School of Medicine, 501 East Broadway # 310, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, USA. Tel.: 502 852 4980; Fax: 502 852 4963; Email: mark.rothstein{at}louisville.edu


  Abstract

In his article in this issue, Daniel Goldberg advocates a broad definition of public health and expressly rejects the narrow definition of public health I proposed in a 2002 article. Goldberg asserts that public health should include all of the root causes of ill health in populations. Such a definition, however, would include within public health war, famine, crime, illiteracy and numerous other conditions on which public health professionals and agencies lack the resources, expertise and public support to act. The appropriate definition explicitly recognizes that public health is a legal term of art referring to specifically authorized activities by public officials to protect, promote and improve population health.


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