The 1948 constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. It was a bold and revolutionary health idea to gain international consensus in a period characterized by fervent anti-communism. This article explores the genealogy of the health definition and demonstrates how it was possible to expand the scope of health, redefine it as ‘well-being’, and overcome ideological resistance to progressive and international health approaches. The first part of the article demonstrates how the health definition was composed through a trajectory of draft ideas from scholars in the history of medicine, as well as political actors working to promote national health insurance. The definition was authored by League of Nations veteran Raymond Gautier, but secretly drew heavily on medical historian Henry E. Sigerist’s controversial book Socialized Medicine in the Soviet Union (1937). The second part analyses how it was possible to resist the ideological pushback against the WHO and secure US ratification. The WHO’s progressive constitution was not simply a deviation from dominant health ideas, but a direct outcome of the entrenched health conflict. The genealogy is based on original archival material from international organizations and US government archives. The article contributes to understandings of the political controversies surrounding the WHO and to scholarship on understandings of health. It also illustrates how influential health ideas cross the boundaries between politics and health sciences, as well as the boundaries between domestic health policy and global health.

1948年的世界卫生组织（WHO）宪法将健康定义为“一种完全身心健康的状态，而不仅仅是没有疾病或虚弱的状态”。在热烈的反共主义时期，赢得国际共识是一个大胆而革命性的健康构想。本文探讨了健康定义的家谱，并展示了如何扩大健康范围，将其重新定义为“幸福”并克服意识形态对进步和国际健康方法的抵制。本文的第一部分展示了如何通过医学史上的学者以及致力于促进国民健康保险的政治行为者的想法草案轨迹来构成健康定义。苏联社会医学（1937）。第二部分分析了如何抵制针对世界卫生组织的意识形态上的退缩并确保美国的批准。世卫组织的进步宪法不仅是对主要健康观念的偏离，而且是根深蒂固的健康冲突的直接结果。族谱基于国际组织和美国政府档案馆的原始档案材料。这篇文章有助于人们了解世界卫生组织周围的政治争议，并有助于人们获得有关健康知识的奖学金。它还说明了有影响力的卫生观念如何跨越政治与卫生科学之间的界限，以及家庭卫生政策与全球卫生之间的界限。