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The Idea of Freedom in the Policy Debate on the Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol
Author(s) -
Dobson Lynn,
Hawkins Benjamin
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of social philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.353
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1467-9833
pISSN - 0047-2786
DOI - 10.1111/josp.12142
Subject(s) - citation , politics , democracy , unit (ring theory) , sociology , law , political science , psychology , mathematics education
At the heart of current debates in public health policy lie claims about curtailment of freedoms. The public regulation of lifestyle behaviours to prevent harms and promote desirable outcomes attracts charges of interference in the freedoms of individuals to choose how they live. Recent plans to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol (MUP) in the UK have met widespread opposition from alcohol producers and retailers. Their criticisms of MUP draw extensively on concepts of freedom. This paper considers whether the idea of freedom invoked by alcohol industry opponents of MUP is as straightforwardly friendly to their cause as they assume. It concludes it is not.