Health Care, Right to

Conceptually, a “right” imposes a “duty” on others. But not all rights and duties are the same. A negative right, such as the right to liberty, imposes a duty on others to refrain from interfering. A positive right, such as a right to education, creates an obligation on relevant parties to provide that education. Correspondingly, health care must be a positive right because it makes little sense to claim that others have a duty of noninterference. Rather, care must be provided. But this gives rise to a number of important questions. Who says that we have a right to health care? Who must provide it? What standard of care must be provided? If there is a right to health care, then what is the justification? ...