Une revue pour diffuser un questionnement. La santé en question : l'éthique, une pratique

Titling a journal Ethics and Health already implies that on one hand ethics is a matter of health and on the other one that, far from being essentially an scientific question, health issues are first of all a question of ethics, because the concept of health is an ethical concept. Indeed, if we refer to its etymology (mainly in Latin languages) this notion has a soteriological dimension. In fact, it refers to the notion of salvation which has religious significance but which first of all designates the philosophical path through which it is possible to achieve a good form of life, that is fully human and worth living. Thus, in his famous Letter to Menœceus and despite its fundamental materialism, Epicurus asks his disciple to work for the health of his soul. Health saves and protects us from our fragility and vulnerability, in order to make us live and strive to have a good life despite our weaknesses and limitations. Therefore, health cannot be related to the absence of disease. A healthy body cannot be reduced to a body that works well just like an engine that runs like a clock. It is also necessary for the engine to make us move and take us where we want to go. That is why the pursuit of health for oneself and for others, whether health of the body or health of the mind - but is the distinction really relevant? - presupposes an ethical approach, in other words, a reflective process that can transform and turn us in a way we really want to be and make us act deliberately. Thus, ethics means a form of practice, which reflects our entire being. First health is the power to be and to act, and this power is maintained and increased whenever we take care of ourselves and others. Therefore, health must always lead to questioning. Ethics in medicine consists essentially in questioning whether the desire of caregivers, physicians and patients alike can find its true meaning.