In most well-resourced health care systems screening programs for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer have been endorsed. Other screening programs have been controversial (prostate, lung, thyroid). While ethical focus has been on challenges with informing about risks and benefits, consent, and decision making, Reid argues that too little attention has been on the invisible overdiagnosed patient and the role of disease-related solidarity. With this Reid opens a new debate on risk and responsibility in cancer screening.
Lynette Reid is associate professor in the Department of Bioethics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and serves on one of Canada’s national health technology assessment agency’s expert review panels. Her research activity includes ethical, political, and philosophical issues in public health, focusing on cancer screening (a book in progress), normative dimensions of population health and the normative significance of health inequalities (a number of articles), and preferential access in universal health care systems (an edited journal special issue).
The seminar is open for everyone.