Health, Well-Being, and Quality of Life

"This elegant book demonstrates the crucial role of conceptual choices about health and well-being in shaping medical practice and research. A must-read not only for philosophers but also for medical professionals and students seeking a deeper understanding of the conceptual foundations of medicine."

-Alex Broadbent, Durham University, UK

This book analyses and discusses from a philosophical perspective the concepts of health, well-being and quality of life in contemporary biomedical research. The guiding idea of the book is that different concepts of health, well-being, and quality of life lead to different types of projects, actions and policies, both at the individual and institutional level. For this reason, it is important to analyse them and make them clear, in their interweaving of objective dimensions (the facts) and evaluative dimensions (the values).

Elisabetta Lalumera is an Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, Department for Life Quality Studies (QUVI), Italy, and Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa