[Can prevention be hazardous to health?]
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Updated: Oct 21, 2026

High Content Screening Analysis to Evaluate the Toxicological Effects of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents (HPHC)
Published on: May 10, 2016
I M Lunde1, M Hafting, K Malterud
1Institut for Almen Medicin, Aarhus Universitet, Aarhus C.
Abstract:
Health-promotion/disease-prevention may--despite the best intentions--have mischievous effects and overlooked ethical implications. This article describes some consequences of health promotion when initiated by the medical profession as medicalization of the modern human being, problems with false test-results, iatrogenic disease, and the risk of "victim blaming". The responsibility of the medical profession includes the well-being of healthy people as well as the actually or future sick. Therefore, health promotion has to be based on the values and informed consent of the healthy part of the population.
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