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Direct-to-Consumer Telehealth and the Ambivalence of Self-Care
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Direct-to-Consumer Telehealth and the Ambivalence of Self-Care

Mercer E. Gary
Journal of applied philosophy, v 42(4), pp 1359-1377
09 Jul 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.70028
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.70028View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)

Abstract

Arts & Humanities Social Sciences - Other Topics Ethics Philosophy Social Sciences
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) telehealth is presented by marketers as a mere conduit for self-care capable of circumventing the frustrations and injustices of existing healthcare systems. If self-care is both lauded as a key tool of resistance for the marginalized and rejected as a hollow marketing tactic, how should we respond to technologies seeking to promote self-care? What can they tell us about where self-care is a valuable pursuit and where it becomes a social threat? I pursue these questions by examining the tensions between ethically meaningful care for the self and pernicious self-responsibilization in two different uses of DTC telehealth: 'men's health' services for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and gender-affirming care services for queer and trans people. Drawing on opposing views of self-care, I argue that particular self-care projects like DTC telehealth are ethically viable where they resist, rather than bolster, projects of domination and where they support, rather than undermine, caring relationships.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being
#5 Gender Equality

Source: SDGs in the Output

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Web of Science research areas
Ethics
Philosophy
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