Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28456925›Full record

ArticleMedicine, health care, and philosophy2017

Necessity and least infringement conditions in public health ethics.

Timothy Allen, Michael J Selgelid

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Medicine, health care, and philosophy, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Cause for coercion: cause for concern?Monash bioethics review · 2025
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Public acceptability of COVID-19 control measures in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia: A cross-sectional survey.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2022
    Article
  4. Community Water Fluoridation: Caveats to Implement Justice in Public Oral Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
    Article
  5. Immunity certification for COVID-19: ethical considerations.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2021
    Article
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Timothy AllenMonash Bioethics Centre, Monash University, Bldg. 11, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia. timothy.allen@monash.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6529-7584
Michael J SelgelidMonash Bioethics Centre, Monash University, Bldg. 11, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The influential public health ethics framework proposed by Childress et al. includes five "justificatory conditions," two of which are "necessity" and "least infringement." While the framework points to important moral values, we argue it is redundant for it to list both necessity and least infringement because they are logically equivalent. However, it is ambiguous whether Childress et al. would endorse this view, or hold the two conditions distinct. This ambiguity has resulted in confusion in public health ethics discussions citing the Childress et al. framework, as demonstrated by debate between Resnik and Wilson and Dawson. We analyse this debate to resolve these ambiguities. Finally, we argue that the necessity/least infringement principle of the Childress et al. framework applies only in cases in which only one intervention is to be implemented to achieve one specific goal. In other cases, it is not essential to require that only the least infringing intervention be implemented.

Indexed as

Ethical TheoryMoralsHumansPersonal AutonomyPhilosophy, MedicalPublic HealthEthics frameworkLeast infringementLeast restrictive alternativeNecessityPublic health ethics

Identifiers

PMID28456925
PMCPMC5665966

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.