Acknowledging health as a universal human right could galvanize people and organizations to make major improvements in health worldwide, according to research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.
“In the US, few people think that everyone has a right to health or universal healthcare. I think that if we commit to protecting everyone’s rights to health, and think creatively about how to do so, we can help a lot of people,” said Nicole Hassoun, PhD, professor of philosophy at Binghamton.
“Consider how human rights advocates galvanized a global effort to extend access to essential medicines for HIV around the world,” said Hassoun. “Activists simply refused to accept pharmaceutical companies’ claim that it was impossible to lower prices and educated patients to demand access to treatment. Mass protests shifted public opinion, and competition from generic medicines brought prices down from $12,000 per patient per year to $350. Similar efforts have transformed the global health landscape, helping us eliminate smallpox and reduce the prevalence of many other devastating diseases.”
Hassoun believes that the human right to health could guide national and international policy.
“Committing to fulfilling everyone’s human right to health can help us overcome the need to ration; it can help us find the resources we need to fulfill the right when it seems that we lack them. It can help us criticize existing policies and support proposals for positive change,” said Hassoun. “People need many things for health, but that is not a reason to reject the right. By fulfilling everyone’s right to health, we may also fulfill many other rights (e.g., rights to clean water, education, and food). Moreover, the human right to health can require protecting public health with things like vaccines. Doing so is important for protecting communities as well as individuals.”
The paper, “The Human Right to Health: A Defense,” was published in the Journal of Social Philosophy.
This article was adapted from information provided by Binghamton University.
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