Healthcare and human rights
Thedailyfiona linked to this article, which argues that the calling healthcare a human right, or any sort of right, fails to understand what a right is. This is a rather bold claim from a writer who also seems a bit fuzzy on how to define “right.” The post concludes, “You cannot have a right to something that necessitates a financial obligation on someone else’s part.” It’s great to know that the bank doesn’t have a right to my mortgage payments.
Now, the Bill of Rights, would be a logical place to start in any discussion of rights and their nature, even though most of the freedoms articularted there are, at least in a Hohfeldian sense, better characterized as liberties. But there are many other things we consider rights that require a financial obligation on somebody’s part. You have a right to vote for President every four years. The election is neither optional nor free. You have a right to equal protection under the law. You have a right to a host of public services. And, as much as this will annoy the conservatives, “entitlement” is another word for right. Legally speaking, you have a right to anything for which you have a valid legal claim.
This leads to two immediate conclusions. Firstly, healthcare is not, as of the writing of this post, a legal right for most of the country. That could change. Secondly, that is all beside the point. The bumpersticker that says, “Healthcare is a human right” is invoking a broader scheme of rights. Healthcare is in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see article 25). Of course, we’re a little fuzzy on how we feel about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because it includes a bunch of hippie stuff about not torturing people. So where do we get a sense of rights that everybody is entitled to—just by merit of being human? At the very least, it is clear that our expectations change as we advance as a society. We might consider basic sanitation a human right because we have the means and ability to provide it. We might consider food a human right—because we have plenty of food. We consider the right to have your day in court a human right because we have a stable and sufficiently impartial judicial system. Should medical coverage also make this list?
In other countries it does. If we don’t think it should here, is it because we’re a less capable society or because we’re a less humane society?
