Should governments moralize health?

Health is often moralized not only by individuals, but also by governments, which was particularly conspicuous during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper addresses the ethics of whether governments should moralize health. It first introduces a definition of moralizing health. It then distinguishes between different ways of moralizing health that affect its moral acceptability, including negative or positive framing, as well as different potential targets toward which moralizing may be directed: (1) persons, (2) behavior, or (3) society. It concludes that targeting individual persons and behavior, especially negatively, is morally unacceptable. Positive moralizing about a healthy society by governments may be more acceptable, but important conditions remain. Governments should not single out individuals or groups and moralizing should not be excessive. Moralized health outcomes should be equally achievable by all citizens and implementation of moral frames should be grounded in robust evidence that it will bring about desired outcomes (i.e., a healthier society) without being harmful or counterproductive. In short, governments should be very cautious about moralizing health. If one of the basic tasks of governments is to protect collective health, this is all too easily undermined by undue moralizing.