Latch On or Back Off? Public Health, Choice, and the Ethics of Breast-Feeding Promotion Campaigns

Abstract

Policies to promote breast-feeding often engender substantial controversy. While clearly involving disagreement over the appropriate limits to government authority, this controversy also reflects a related disagreement over whether infant-feeding practices are a public health matter or a private choice. Infant feeding practices are both a personal choice warranting some deference by the state yet also a legitimate target of public health intervention. Evaluating the ethics of breast-feeding policy thus requires navigating this complex duality, a duality mirrored by healthy eating policies that aim to increase consumption of healthier foods and decrease consumption of less-healthy foods. Examining the analogies and disanalogies with healthy eating policies can illuminate important ethical complexities of breast-feeding policy.