Open AccessQuestioning the Ethics of Promoting Weight Loss in Clinical Practice
Author(s) -
Andria Bianchi,
Maria Ricupero
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
canadian journal of bioethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.163
H-Index - 3
ISSN - 2561-4665
DOI - 10.7202/1070228ar
Subject(s) - weight loss , equity (law) , psychology , body mass index , environmental health , medicine , political science , obesity , law , pathology
This case study considers the ethical defensibility of recommending weight loss asa treatment for patients with higher body mass indexes. Recommending weight loss may bemotivated by clinicians’ biases toward people living in larger bodies, misperceptions aboutweight and its relevancy to overall health, and a failure to consider other ethical factorssuch as those related to equity and the social determinants of health.