Total body scans are scaremongering, says ethics professor

Allowing private companies to offer total body scans to anyone concerned about their health will push up healthcare costs and create unnecessary panic, a leading ethics professor says in Monday’s Trouw.

Theo de Boer, a former VU professor who now teaches at the Theological University of Kampen, says legalising such a ‘preventative test’ will lead to guilt feelings in people who did not have a scan and are later found to be ill.

‘These total “check ups” lead to more unnecessary diagnoses and surplus treatments,’ he said in a speech. ‘In addition, they threaten to create an atmosphere in which we say “you have to join in, because it will be your fault if you turn out to be ill later”.’

Health minister Edith Schippers is expected to decide before the summer whether to approve total scans.

Eveline Krul, a member of the Dutch radiologists’ association, told Trouw the benefits of the scans do not outweigh the disadvantages and that they offer a false sense of security.

‘And even if whatever abnormality that shows up is not medical by nature, you cannot take away peoples’ fears,’ she said. ‘We notice that patients seriously underestimate the unease which can be created by having a scan.’