Health as normal function: a weak link in Daniels's theory of just health distribution.

Drawing on Christopher Boorse's Biostatistical Theory (BST), Norman Daniels contends that a genuine health need is one which is necessary to restore normal functioning - a supposedly objective notion which he believes can be read from the natural world without reference to potentially controversial normative categories. But despite his claims to the contrary, this conception of health harbors arbitrary evaluative judgments which make room for intractable disagreement as to which conditions should count as genuine health needs and therefore which needs should be met. I begin by offering a brief summary of Boorse's BST, the theory to which Daniels appeals for providing the conception of health as normal functioning upon which his overall distributive scheme rests.

Dyspepsia in general practice in Denmark. A 1-year analysis of consulters in general practice.

Objective: To estimate the incidence rate of patients with dyspepsia in general practice, related to age, gender and dwelling and to classify the patients into dyspepsia subgroups.

Design: In a background population of 123,610 persons under the National Health Insurance System a systematic, prospective registration of dyspepsia patients consulting in general practice was done. Each patient was subject to a structured interview covering 18 dyspepsia symptoms and six alarm symptoms.