Section 2: Responsibility

Responsibility captures the ways in which the burden of responsibility for health and wellbeing is being shifted onto individuals. In most Western countries, current laws and regulations require individuals to be fully informed about medical procedures and to be offered the choice either to consent to it or to opt out. But as the books included amply demonstrate, we are witnessing not only the promotion of individual responsibility but also a reconfiguration of responsibility between different groups. Policymakers, clinicians, insurance companies and employers also have responsibilities for the health of their citizens, patients, customers and workers.