Going too far? How the public health anti-obesity drives could cause harm by promoting eating disorders

Public health campaigns amongst the general population that aim to prevent disease or health conditions can raise ethical issues in several different ways. In this chapter, we will explore the public health campaigns and programmes in the United Kingdom aimed at reducing obesity and overweight, and examine the ethical implications, in particular the potential impact on one particular group of mental illnesses, eating disorders. We will lay out the medical definitions and understanding of obesity and of eating disorders respectively with consideration of some public health campaigns against obesity; examine the relationship between the two; and then discuss the ethical implications of public health campaigns and strategies for obesity and their impact on eating disorders based around the principle of “Primum non nocere”. We argue that public health campaigns are ethically and morally obligated to ensure that no collateral damage ensues in their aim to target the whole population.