Edouard Leaune, Attending Psychiatrist – MD PhD, CPS/VigilanS/3114/ESPOIR, Pôle Urgences Psychiatriques, CH Le Vinatier
Health Justice : a social justice approach to healthcare
While the definition of health and disease remains a major issue in health, social inequalities in health and their implications for the healthcare system must be included in any definition of health. The concept of health justice thus aims to propose renewed approaches to health from the angle of social justice, including Hegelian approaches based on recognition and extension of redistributive theories to health. Based on a critical analysis of the existing approaches, we draw up a list of five basic principles that include epistemological, epidemiological, political, empirical and theoretical issues. The association between Norman Daniels's Rawlsian approach to social justice in health and Jerome Wakefield's definition of mental disorder is an appropriate response to the list of principles based on the concept of 'opportunity-based harmful’ dysfunction. The complementarity between Daniels and Wakefield allows to build a normative approach of health justice oriented towards social accountability in health and health democracy, taking into account issues of redistribution and recognition, while offering a definition of health and disease.
