Volume 178 - Issue 10
Boundaries of medicine
Author: Keith S Jones
Med J Aust 2003; 178 (10): 527. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05343.x
Published online: 19 May 2003
Published online: 19 May 2003
To the Editor: Van Der Weyden has commented on the World Health Organization's Utopian definition of "health", first promulgated in 1948.1
In 1973, I addressed this matter in a speech to the All Nations Club in Sydney, and again in 1980 when presenting a paper to The Hope Foundation (a large charitable health organisation in the United States). For what it is worth, my suggested definition of "health" was:
Health is a high level of physical, mental and social comfort appropriate to the age of the person concerned and attainable within the economic constraints of the particular environment.
It seems we have some agreement, and I would like to see the WHO again consider definition!
References
- Van Der Weyden MB. Boundaries of medicine [letter]. Med J Aust 2003; 178: 192. <eMJA full text>