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Critical Introduction - The Meaning of Sexual Health |
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What is Sexual Health?
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A Utopian Concept
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The definition of health as a state of overall "well-being, not merely the absence of disease" is, in itself, ideological. In view of the generally imperfect human condition, this concept is utopian and unrealistic. In real life, people do not always enjoy this kind of well-being and thus would have to consider themselves sick much of the time. "Nobody's perfect", life is not always fair, and some shortcomings, limitations, discomforts, disappointments, and disadvantages must be borne with equanimity. It would certainly be a grave misunderstanding if everyone felt entitled to well-being as an "unalienable right". In short:
The WHO interpretation of health, if taken literally, is bound to create unnecessary personal frustration and unreasonable demands on any health care system. The definition may be useful as an ideal, but only as long as it is well understood that human beings are constitutionally vulnerable and mortal and that they must be content with rarely or never reaching it fully. |
