Questioning the Ethics of Promoting Weight Loss in Clinical Practice

Authors

  • Andria Bianchi Bioethics Program, University Health Network; Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
  • Maria Ricupero Nutrition & Dietetics, Private Practice, Toronto, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7202/1070228ar

Keywords:

social determinants, weight cycling, weight bias, weight stigma, weight inclusive

Language(s):

English

Abstract

This case study considers the ethical defensibility of recommending weight loss as a treatment for patients with higher body mass indexes. Recommending weight loss may be motivated by clinicians’ biases toward people living in larger bodies, misperceptions about weight and its relevancy to overall health, and a failure to consider other ethical factors such as those related to equity and the social determinants of health.

Open issue, (c) Emanuelle Dufour

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Published

2020-07-20

How to Cite

[1]
Bianchi A, Ricupero M. Questioning the Ethics of Promoting Weight Loss in Clinical Practice. Can. J. Bioeth 2020;3:95-8. https://doi.org/10.7202/1070228ar.

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2020): Open Issue

Section

Case studies

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Andria Bianchi, Maria Ricupero

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Canadian Journal of Bioethics applies the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License to all its publications. Authors therefore retain copyright of their publication, e.g., they can reuse their publication, link to it on their home page or institutional website, deposit a PDF in a public repository. However, the authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy their publication, so long as the original authors and source are cited.

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