A Right to Health Care — Fact or Fiction?

Lesser P. B. “A Right to Health?” Forum on Medicine, October, 1980.

Caplan Arthur , and Jennings Bruce Moral Rights and Access to Health Care. (New York: Hastings Center, 1983), p. 2.

Starr Paul The Social Transformation of American Medicine. (New York, 1983), Basic Books.

Leo XIII, Pope, “Rerum Novarum.” (On the Conditions of Workers), May 1981.

“Rerum Novarum.”, Section 53.

“Rerum Novarum.”, Section 68.

“Rerum Novarum.”, Section 69.

Illich Ivan Medical Nemesis. (Random House, New York, 1976).

Pius XI, Pope, “Quadragesimo Anno” (On Restructuring the Social Order).

“Quadragesimo Anno”, Section 25.

“Quadragesimo Anno”, Section 27.

John XXIII, Pope, “Pacem in Terris” (Peace on Earth).

(Peace on Earth), Section III.

American Catholic Bishops, “Health and Health Care,” (A Pastoral Letter), November, 1981, pp. 17-18.

John Paul II, Pope, Address to World Congress of Catholic Doctors, Oct. 13, 1982.

Fried D. “Equity and Rights in Health Care,” Hastings Center Report, 6, February 1976, p. 29.

Cf. Lesser p. 668.

Veatch R. A Theory of Medical Ethics. (New York: Basic Books, 1981), pp. 270–271.

A Theory of Medical Ethics., p. 33.

Drummond, et al. have pointed out that in their experience in Canada and the United Kingdom, free market principles do not work in health care. Some of their basic tenets are that human wants are unlimited, but resources are finite and that health care choices involve value judgments. They also notice the arguments that “recent advances in health care have had little impact on life expectancy, compared with improvements in nutrition, sanitation and general economic wealth.” They indicate, in passing, that: “Perhaps we have to accept that health is traded, by persons and governments for other benefits”; (bold face added). These authors mention fast cars, climbing mountains and cigarettes. (See: Drummond M. “Health Economics: An Introduction for Clinicians”, Annals of Internal Medicine, 1987 (07: 8892).

Rawls John A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, 1971.

Daniels N. “Right to Health Care and Distributive Justice: Programmatic Worries.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Vol., 4, No. 2, June, 1979, pp 174–191.