Public Health Regulation: A Systematic Evaluation, Essay Example

One of the primary principles when people face tradeoffs in society is that in order to get something that they want, they have to give up something else they want. The government has an essential responsibility to public’s health. This is evident in the seat belt laws, as a direct effect for allowing for more people to survive accidents, saw the effect of more people driving faster because of seat belts capability or preventing accidents. This is same as the required behavior for wearing motorcycle helmets. Required behavior involves to individuals to “prevent personal injury and health care costs by requiring safety behaviors.” (Gostin 44) While the government tries to create laws to prevent self-harm, they can’t not take away are person’s liberty or personal autonomy to indulge in actions that take away their freedoms to make their own choices.

In the case of “The Tobacco Wars” the Tobacco Companies knowingly pushed unhealthy and deadly products to people, even as numerous studies documented the harmful effects to health. The problem lies in the tradeoff between public goods and private interests. While tobacco is a threat to the health of the public, the business and personal interests have outweighed the needs of the public. (Gostin 13) Public health created synergies in which they imposed restrictions stemming from taxes and Surgeon General Labels that details the dangers in smoking tobacco. However, it is a voluntary approach of the individual to engage in using the tobacco products assuming the risks. This can be seen with laws targeting the control of sugars, e.g. New York and their soda tax. However, freedom of actions gives people the freedom and the responsibility to act according within the scope that they do so while practicing required behavior for personal safety, even if public health tries to prevent harmful personal actions.

Works Cited

Gostin, Lawrence O. (2000). Public Health Regulation: A Systematic Evaluation. 2000 Working Paper Series. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=242584

Gostin, Lawrence O. (2008). Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint. University of California Press: Los Angeles.