title: Why not a general right to health care?
abstract: Common objections to a right to health care reflect questionable assumptions about the nature of rights, power, illness, inequality, and money. A right to health care can be based on other more general rights to life, liberty, and health, as well as on considerations of equality and the medical profession's professed moral commitments. However based, it need not "enslave" or coerce physicians and nurses, nor force us to sacrifice other social goods. But consensus is unlikely except on specific rights to certain kinds of health care.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ruddick
mesh_terms: D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006806:Human Rights; D006801:Humans; D028681:Moral Obligations; D009014:Morals; D011209:Power, Psychological; D040841:Resource Allocation; D012935:Social Justice; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States