Abstract

The hypothesis that administering a diagnostic test to an asymptomatic population can detect a relevant proportion of prevalent cases in an early phase and therefore improve the chances of curing disease dates back to the sixties and has been tested and applied mainly to neoplastic diseases. Meanwhile, the practice of screening has benefitted from the progress of diagnostic technology and from the development, particularly in Europe, of efficient national health systems.Half a century later, two Swedish researchers, Niklas Juth and Christian Munthe, undertake the task of reexamining various aspects of screening practices in light of the ethical justification of this secondary prevention tool. Their analysis encompasses all public health actions in which the personal benefit is contrasted with collective health considerations. Screening generates such doubts and conflicts, which are inherently ethical.The publication could be split in two parts. The first is a long section, mainly infor ..