Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. In the article “Reflections on Public Health Ethics”, Professor Cong argues that public health ethics cannot be traced back to either medical ethics or bioethics. Therefore, to guide public health practices, it is necessary to construct a framework of public health ethics based on the intrinsic features of public health. I agree that this constructive approach points out a clear and feasible direction for China’s public health ethics; however, this approach must be grounded in scientific foundations and the conditions of public health practices. If state intervention is overly powerful, public health ethics should balance this force through scientific evidence and freedom of speech; otherwise, the public good cannot be guaranteed.