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  • Title: Rawlsian justice and a human right to health care.
    Author: Moskop JC.
    Journal: J Med Philos; 1983 Nov; 8(4):329-38. PubMed ID: 6655382.
    Abstract:
    This paper considers whether Rawls' theory of justice as fairness may be used to justify a human right to health care. Though Rawls himself does not discuss health care, other writers have applied Rawls' theory to the provision of health care. Ronald Green argues that contractors in the original position would establish a basic right to health care. Green's proposal, however, requires considerable relaxation of the constraints Rawls places on the original position and thus jeopardizes Rawls' arguments for the two principles of justice. Norman Daniels claims that health care is best understood as a means for helping to achieve Rawls' goal of equality of fair opportunity. Daniels acknowledges, however, that his interpretation cannot justify a basic right to health care; rather, it would at best require that certain kinds of care be made available to certain kinds of individuals. Finally, in place of the notion of health care as a human right, it is suggested that the provision of health care is a social ideal which may inspire the creation of specific legal rights. On this view, social provision of health care may properly vary significantly from culture to culture. Despite this variability, social systems may still be criticized on moral grounds. Moskop considers whether Rawls' theory of justice as fairness can be used to justify a human right to health care, as Ronald Green and Norman Daniels have argued. He concludes that neither Green's elevation of health care to the position of primary social good nor Daniel's inclusion of health care institutions among those background institutions necessary for fair equality of opportunity are implied in Rawls' theory. Health care as a human right may not be justified by any ethical theory, but its provision may be seen as a social ideal from which legal rights evolve.
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