The European Public Health Conference is one of the most significant meetings for public health leaders and practitioners in Europe, affording opportunities for the exchange of ideas and a platform for debate between researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners.

Within this broad remit, it is important that attention be given to ethics and law, both of which sit at the heart of coordinated efforts to protect and promote population health, and to diminish inequalities in health.

Professor Coggon, a leader in Public Health Ethics and Law research and education, is engaged in a series of ongoing collaborations with the UK Faculty of Public Health, the standard-setting body for public health specialists. As a part of that, he was invited to present a paper in a session led by the chair of the Faculty’s Ethics Committee, Dr Farhang Tahzib, on the ‘nanny state’.

This topic represents a perennial concern in debates on the ethics of public health interventions: when and how might health promotion activities be justified, given concerns associated with classical liberalism that people should be free to decide for themselves what is good for them?

The panel comprised experts from a range of disciplines and perspectives within public health, with Martin McKee, Caroline Vass, and Peter Schröder-Bäck participating alongside Professor Coggon and Dr Tahzib.
The papers stimulated discussions on a variety of topics, well-chaired by Professor John Middleton, President of the Faculty of Public Health, and Dr Els Maeckelberghe, Vice-President of the European Public Health Association’s Ethics in Public Health section.