Rights to Health Care

Description

Human existence is marked by pain, limitation, disability, disease, suffering, and death. These facts of life and of death give ample grounds for characterizing much of the human condition as unfortunate. A core philosophical question is whether the circumstances are in addition unfair or unjust in the sense of justifying claims on the resources, time, and abilities of others. The temptation to use the languages of rights and of justice is und- standable. Faced with pain, disability, and death, it seems natural to complain that "someone should do something", "this is unfair", or "it just isn't fight that people should suffer this way". Yet it is one thing to complain about the unfairness of another's actions, and another thing to complain about the unfairness of biological or physical processes. If no one is to blame for one's illness, disability, or death, in what sense are one's unfortunate circumstances unfair or unjust? How can claims against others for aid and support arise if no one has caused the unfortunate state of affairs? To justify the languages of fights to health care or justice in health care requires showing why particular unfortunate circumstances are also unfair, in the sense of demanding the labors of others. It requires understanding as well the limits of property claims. After all, claims regarding justice in health care or about fights to health care limit the property fights of those whose resources will be used to provide care. Front Matter....Pages i-ix The Rhetoric of Rights and Justice in Health Care....Pages 1-19 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 The Right to Health Care: Reflections on Its History and Politics....Pages 23-49 Front Matter....Pages 51-51 The Right to Health Care in a Capitalistic Democracy....Pages 53-81 Justice and the Right to Health Care: An Egalitarian Account....Pages 83-102 Rights to Health Care: Created, Not Discovered....Pages 103-111 Why the Right to Health Care is Not a Useful Concept for Policy Debates....Pages 113-131 Front Matter....Pages 133-133 Rights, Reforms, and the Health Care Crisis: Problems and Prospects....Pages 135-168 Rights, Obligations, and the Special Importance of Health Care....Pages 169-184 Access to Health Care: Charity and Rights....Pages 185-198 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 Equal Opportunity and Health Care Rights for the Elderly....Pages 201-212 Free Markets, Consumer Choice, and the Poor: Some Reasons for Caution....Pages 213-241 My Right to Care for my Health — And What About the Needy and the Elderly?....Pages 243-255 Front Matter....Pages 257-257 Should Medicine be a Commodity? An Economist’s Perspective....Pages 259-305 The Profit Motive in Kant and Hegel....Pages 307-325 Virtue for Hire: Some Reflections on Free Choice and the Profit Motive in the Delivery of Health Care....Pages 327-353 Rights, Public Policy, and the State....Pages 355-374 Back Matter....Pages 375-380