Daniel Halliday, ‘The Ethics of a Smoking License’
Daniel Halliday1 argues that the most efficient way to reduce cigarette smoking is to implement a smoking licence. Such a system would, he maintains, be more effective than sales taxes because a licence would have a greater cost, which would be more of a disincentive, and a larger up-front cost, whi...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
BMJ Publ.
2016
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| In: |
Journal of medical ethics
Year: 2016, Volume: 42, Issue: 5, Pages: 285 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Daniel Halliday1 argues that the most efficient way to reduce cigarette smoking is to implement a smoking licence. Such a system would, he maintains, be more effective than sales taxes because a licence would have a greater cost, which would be more of a disincentive, and a larger up-front cost, which would be a greater disincentive than distributed cost over time. Additionally, insofar as most people start smoking as adolescents, and insofar as adolescents would not be likely to afford a licence, this would have the additional effect of stopping smokers before they begin.These are economic arguments for an economic policy: they purport to trace the most efficient means to the given end of reducing smoking. Is there also a moral argument? While Halliday says there is, no normative or ethical principle is articulated anywhere in the paper. His argument is grounded in a basic commitment to paternalism generally, and paternalism with regard to adolescents in particular (p3). No defence of paternalism is offered, however; the majority of the paper consists of a series of defences of a licence system against economic and moral objections. In this note, … |
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| ISSN: | 1473-4257 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of medical ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2016-103471 |