Abstract This chapter reframes the project of public health within a rights framework. It argues that there is a right to health, and this entails that individuals have a right to public health. Given that there is a right to public health, the state should undertake to reduce health risks. If a state does not take easy steps to reduce risks to health, and as a result allows significant numbers to come to harm or even death, then it violates individuals’ right to public health, and should be criticized as a Neglectful State. The ethical challenge of public health policy is therefore not the one-sided one of avoiding Nannying, but the more complex task of steering a course between Nannying and Neglect. Avoiding Neglect may involve restricting liberty in various ways.