Citizen–Patient/Citizen–Doctor

Abstract

In a welfare states, no typical user of health care services isonly a patient; and no typical provider of these services is simply a doctor, nurse or paramedic. Occupiers of these rolesalso have distinctive relations and responsibilities – as citizens– to medical services, responsibilities that are widely acknowledgedby those who live in welfare states. Outside welfare states, thisfusion of civic consciousness with involvement in health care isless pronounced or missing altogether. But the globalisation of avery comprehensive understanding of human rights, including rightsto state-provided health care, will make welfare state thinking –for better or worse – more of an orthodoxy worldwide than it isnow. Medical ethics needs to reflect this.