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The Right to Health Care

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The Right to Health Care: Ethical Considerations

Part of the book series: The International Library of Bioethics ((ILB,volume 92))

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Abstract

The present chapters argues that there is a right to health care, that this right is grounded in the fundamental principles of ethics, and that an ethical society has an obligation to supply such care insofar as it is able to do so within the context of its other obligations and the limits of its resources. It also distinguishes between health care services construed as commodities as opposed to rights, and outlines some tools that may be used in making allocation decisions at the policy level.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://undocs.org/E/C.12/2000/4.

  2. 2.

    Cf. Aggarwal et al. (2010), Petrou and Vandoros (2018).

  3. 3.

    World Health Organization, WHO methods and data sources for global burden of disease estimates 2000–2011; accessed 19/06/2020 at https://www.who.int/healthinfo/statistics/GlobalDALYmethods_2000_2011.pdf.

  4. 4.

    Gold et al. (2002).

  5. 5.

    La Puma and Lawlor (2009), Weinstein et al. (2009).

  6. 6.

    Arnesen (2011).

  7. 7.

    The reason for this qualifier will become more apparent in the subsequent discussions of auto- vs. hetero-induced health care needs.

  8. 8.

    There are various ways in which this could be achieved: E.g., by giving tax credits for insurance, by giving direct subsidy, by providing employers with credits so that they could insure their employees, etc.

  9. 9.

    Cf. O’Neill (2001) at 15: “Nobody can accept two or more principles or rules whose enactment is intrinsically incompatible.

  10. 10.

    The reason for stating the issue in this fashion will become clear when dealing with the issue of macro-allocation.

  11. 11.

    Arguably, both Buddhist and Hindu views of personhood constitute two further views of personhood: the former seeing true personhood as anatman (being a non-person), the latter seeing personhood as centering in atman (being a true self). However, logically speaking, both views are subspecies of the functional view of personhood and differ merely in the emphasis that should be placed on individual and focused perceptions and interrelationships.

  12. 12.

    For a contemporary study from a non-philosophical point of view, see Cacioppo and Patrick (2008).

  13. 13.

    In what follows, the term “society” will generally be understood as referring to a fusional society.

  14. 14.

    Chapter 2, p. 23.

  15. 15.

    For more on this, see Chap. 8, infra.

  16. 16.

    On the relationship between values and preferences, see Warren et al. (2011).

  17. 17.

    Cf. Baker (1993). See also Nelson and Drought (1992).

  18. 18.

    Cf. Chap. 1, p. 8.

  19. 19.

    The Act underwent substantial changes from its original formulation for economic reasons, but did not revise the underlying value-based structure of 1993.

  20. 20.

    For limiting conditions, see Chap. 2, pp, 22 f.

  21. 21.

    In what follows, and unless otherwise stated, “society” will be understood in the sense of fusional society.

  22. 22.

    The author was in error in this regard in the article “Social Values, Socioeconomic Resources and Effectiveness Coefficients: An Ethical Model for Statistically-based Resource Allocation,” in R Cohen-Almagor (2000).

  23. 23.

    Cf. Chap. 2, p. 33 ff. et pass.

  24. 24.

    For more on this, see Chap. 4, infra.

  25. 25.

    For more on this, see infra, Chap. 5, “Privacy in Mediated Health Care.”.

  26. 26.

    This may become different when artificial intelligence in the full-blooded sense of the term and what might be called robotic instrumentation become a reality. In that case, the robotic entity would replace the health care professional. However, even then, the logic of this consideration would apply in their case.

  27. 27.

    Drew (2016), Pirmohamed (2001).

  28. 28.

    Ali and Al Suwaidi (2019), Wilson et al. (2020), Zhao et al. (2018).

  29. 29.

    Laws of nature are not logically necessary. Cf. Encyclopedia Britannica, “Laws of Nature;” https://www.britannica.com/topic/law-of-nature.

  30. 30.

    Se Chapter 5, infra.

  31. 31.

    P. 55, infra.

  32. 32.

    Kalligerou et al. (2019), Kojima (2018).

  33. 33.

    Vacca (2016).

  34. 34.

    Howard et al. (2016).

  35. 35.

    Salameh et al. (2015).

  36. 36.

    Chapter 2, pp. 23, ff.

  37. 37.

    World Health Organization, Definition of Palliative Care; accessed 10/07/2020 at https://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/.

  38. 38.

    A similar concision is entailed by the Principles of Beneficence and Nonmaleficence.

  39. 39.

    Williams (1997), Daniels (2007), Bringedal (1992).

  40. 40.

    Gill et al. (2018), Ogrodnik et al. (2019).

  41. 41.

    Sozou and Kirkwood (2001).

  42. 42.

    Benham and Charak (2019), Levy et al. (2019).

  43. 43.

    Marmot (2017), Veisani et al. (2017).

  44. 44.

    Beale et al. (2019), Fischinger et al. (2019).

  45. 45.

    Özdemir and Dotto (2017), Saksena et al. (1992), Stephens et al. (1998).

  46. 46.

    Porter (2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, FRSC, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Eike-Henner W. Kluge

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Kluge, EH.W. (2022). The Right to Health Care. In: The Right to Health Care: Ethical Considerations. The International Library of Bioethics, vol 92. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93838-3_3

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