Abstract
Many public health policies interfere with human rights, limiting the exercise of personal rights. Examples are limitation of individual privacy by screening programs and census studies, that of free expression by the regulation on commercial speech, limitation of personal autonomy and freedom by quarantine, isolation and forced treatments. However, there have not been thus far established a set of standard procedures to judge if those human rights limitations can be accepted and justifiable for the sake of public health. For such decisions, the legitimacy, rationality, economic costs and efficiency, the degree of rights limitation, and the fairness of policies should be thoroughly assessed, along with their interactions with other policies. In a democratic society, due process is also quite important to secure the balance between public health and individual rights.
