health care as a human right

Mark linked to the innocuous political blog quiz below on his own blog. One of the questions in the quiz has to do with health care and whether it is a human right. An anonymous commenter on Mark’s blog took issue with this, writing in part:

My for instance is on the 'right to health care' question. I bet you answered yes. Many unthinking people would. I didn't, because of the negative implications of it. I'm certainly not at all opposed to health care, but I reject the unthinking consumerism that has encroached on our conception of what has come to be a 'health industry'. I think making it in the nature of a 'right', like a right to 'life' or 'freedom of conscience', takes away from what should be it's central aspect as an exercise in charity to another at an individual level.

He goes on … you can read more here if you want.

Just for the record, I thought I’d share some thoughts from the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching.

“Beginning our discussion of the rights of the human person, we see that everyone has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are suitable for the proper development of life; these are primarily food, clothing, shelter, rest, medical care, and finally the necessary social services.” Pope John XXIII, Peace on Earth, 1963, #11

“Affordable and accessible health care is an essential safeguard of human life, a fundamental human right, and an urgent national priority. We need to reform the nation’s health care system, and this reform must be rooted in values that respect human dignity, protect human life, and meet the needs of the poor and uninsured.” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, 2003

“It is to address problems like this that Catholic Social Teaching insists that products and services essential to life – food, health care, etc. – not be left to the free market. To leave them to the market is, practically speaking, to value the lives of the wealthy more than the lives of those in poverty – a major violation of the fundamental principle of the sacred dignity of each and every person. “It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied, and not to allow those burdened by such needs to perish.” Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 1991, # 34

Guess those Papal & Bishop types fit into the category of “unthinking people.”?

Catholic Social Teaching and the gospel of justice ... our own "incovenient truth."