Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T17:31:57.556Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anarchism and Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

NIALL SCOTT
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article looks at what anarchism has to offer in debates concerning health and healthcare. I present the case that anarchism’s interest in supporting the poor, sick, and marginalized, and rejection of state and corporate power, places it in a good position to offer creative ways to address health problems. I maintain that anarchistic values of autonomy, responsibility, solidarity, and community are central to this endeavor. Rather than presenting a case that follows one particular anarchist theory, my main goal is to raise issues and initiate debate in this underresearched field in mainstream bioethics.

Keywords

anarchismhealthautonomyresponsibilitysolidaritystate powercorporate power
Type
Special Section: Justice, Healthcare, and Wellness
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 217 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Marshall, P. Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism, London: Harper Perennial Press; 2008:234.Google Scholar

2. Kropotkin P. Anarchism. In: Encyclopaedia Britannica 1910; available at: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1910/britannica.htm (last accessed 28 July 2017).

3. See note 2, Kropotkin 1910.

4. Cleminson, R. Anarchists for health: Spanish anarchism and health reform in the 1930s. Part I: Anarchism, neo-malthusianism, eugenics and concepts of health. Health Care Analysis, 1995;3(1):61–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

5. See, for example, Hill M. Fragments of an Anarchist Public Health: Developing Visions of a Healthy Society, n.d.; available at http://anarchiststudies.mayfirst.org/node/301 (last accessed 26 July 2017). A vision of anarchist health care: mutual aid through self-managed health cooperatives. Anarchy and Health, November 3, 2011; available at https://backalleyradio.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/a-vision-of-anarchist-health-care-mutual-aid-through-self-managed-health-cooperatives/ (last accessed 26 July 2017).

6. Kovats, S, Depledge, M, Haines, A, Fleming, LE, Wilkinson, P. The health implications of fracking. The Lancet 2014;383(9919): 757–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

7. Bakunin, M. Bakunin on Anarchy, New York: Random House; 1971, at 371.Google Scholar

8. Beauchamp, T, Childress, JF. The Principles of Biomedical Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2005.Google Scholar

9. See for example, Herissone-Kelly, P. The principlist approach to bioethics and its stormy journey overseas. In: Häyry, M, Takala, T, eds. Scratching the Surface of Bioethics. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi; 2003:65–77.Google Scholar Also see Herisonne-Kelly, P. Determining the common morality’s norms in the sixth edition of Principles of Biomedical Ethics. Journal of Medical Ethics 2011;37:584–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Häyry, M. (2003) European values in bioethics, what why where and how to be used? Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. 2003;24(3):199–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics. The Nuffield Council Report, Public Health: Ethical Issues. Cambridge: Cambridge Publishers Ltd; 2007.

12. Davis, AJ. Are there limits to caring? The conflict between autonomy and beneficence. In Leininger, MM, ed. Ethical and Moral Dimensions of Care. Detroit: Wayne State University Press; 1990:27–28.Google Scholar

13. See note 12, Davis 1990, at 28.

14. Malatesta, E. Individualism and communism in anarchism In: Richards, V, ed. The Anarchist Revolution: Polemical Articles 1924–1931. London: The Freedom Press; 1995:18–22.Google Scholar

15. Bookchin, M. Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism? An Unbridgeable Chasm. Chico, CA: AK Press; 1995.Google Scholar

16. Blacksher E. Public health. Ethics in Medicine. University of Washington School of Medicine; 2014; available at https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/public.html (last accessed 29 July 2017).

17. Rehg, W. Solidarity and the common good. Journal of Social Philosophy 2007;38(1):7–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18. Parker, M. Individualism. In: Chadwick, R, Levitt, M, eds. Ethical Issues in Healthcare. London: Arnold Press; 1998:16–33.Google Scholar

19. See note 8, Beauchamp, Childress 2005.

20. See note 18, Parker 1998.

21. Cleminson, R. Anarchists for health: Spanish anarchism and health reform in the 1930s. Part I: Anarchism, neo-malthusianism, eugenics and concepts of health. Health Care Analysis 1995;3(1):61–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

22. Parker, RA. Feminism in America. In: Glassgold, P, ed. Anarchy! An Anthology of Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth. Washington DC: Counterpoint; 2001 (originally published 1915):124–5.Google Scholar

23. Mother Earth! was a publication of the anarchist movement, edited by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkmann. Its first issue appeared in 1906, and it continued until 1918. Shortly after, Goldman and Berkman were deported to Russia. It was a magazine dedicated to writings on the full spectrum of anarchist thought. An anthology of the magazine appeared in print in: Glassgold 2001.

24. Sanger M. A plan for peace. Birth Control Review 1932(April):107–8.

25. See note 24, Sanger 1932, at 107.

26. Kropotkin, P. The sterilisation of the unfit. In: Glassgold 2001, at 120–3.

27. Goodway D. Anarchism and the welfare state: The Peckham Health Centre. History and Policy 2007; available at http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/anarchism-and-the-welfare-state-the-peckham-health-centre (last accessed 20 October 2017).

28. http://www.ithicahealth.org (last accessed 27 July 2017).

29. Humble M. Window on the world. Development 2005;48(4):144–50.

30. See, for example, new articles in the mainstream media in the United Kingdom on the privatization creep in healthcare: Jeremy Hunt is criticised for his role in £650m Virgin hospital deal, The Guardian, September 8, 2012; available at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/sep/09/jeremy-hunt-virgin-hospital-deal; Doctor’s searing chronicle of NHS piles pressure on Hunt, July 1, 2017; available at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/01/junior-doctor-rachel-clarke-nhs-lament-jeremy-hunt (last accessed 27 July 2017).

31. See note 11, Lord Krebs et al. 2007.

32. See note 27, Goodway 2007.

33. DFID, Research Funding Framework, 2005–2007; available at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20060403085825/http://www.dfid.gov.uk/research/newresearch.asp, at 4 (last accessed 20 October 2017).

34. Gordon, T, Griffiths, B. Why society is making us sick. In: Do It Yourself, A Handbook for Changing our World. London: Pluto Press; 2007:78–107.Google Scholar

35. Harris J. The Ethics Of Fluoridation, 1989; available at http://www.bfsweb.org/facts/ethics/ethicsharris.htm (last accessed 27 July 2017).

36. See note 11, Nuffield Council on Bioethics 2007, at 126–7.

37. Holcombe, R. A theory of the theory of public goods. Review of Austrian Economics 1997;10(1):1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38. Ersser, SJ, Atkins, S. Clinical reasoning and patient-centred care. In: Higgs, J, Jones, M, eds. Clinical Reasoning in the Health Professions. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2000:67–77 Google Scholar

39. Hope, KW, Easby, R, Waterman, H. Finding the person the disease has – the case for multi sensory environments. The Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2004;11:554–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40. Zucca, A, Sanson-Fischer, R, Waller, A, Carey, M, Broadie, D. The first step in ensuring patient centred quality of care: Ask the patient. European Journal of Cancer Care 2017;26(4):1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

41. Hutchinson R, Hagar L. The development and evaluation of a Snoezelen leisure resource for people with a severe multiple disability. In: Hutchinson R, Kewin J, eds. Sensation and Disability: Sensory Environments for Leisure, Snoezelen, Education and Therapy, J. Chesterfield: Rompa; 1994:18–48.