Ethics and the ProfessionsNotesThis is not a substitute for coming to class Richard Lee
Philosophy 3103Copyright © 2007, Richard Lee Autumn 2007
 

Rights to Health Care: Sade's View

Dr. Robert Sade on the right to health care:

Medical care is neither a right nor a privilege: it is a service that is provided by doctors and others to people who wish to purchase it. (380a)
Should health care be granted to a limited number of people (as a privilege), or should it be granted to everyone (as a right)? . . . Health care cannot morally be granted to anyone. It is a service that must be treated as any other service: it must be purchased by those who wish to buy it, or given as a gift to the sick by the only human beings who are competent to give that gift -- the health professionals themselves. (Dr. Robert Sade, "Is Health Care a Right?")

McCullough on Sade's view:

Dr. Sade points to two kinds of conflicts which may defeat the right to health care. The first is a conflict with the natural right of any man to his property. . . . The second is a conflict with the right of freedom. (380a)


Richard Lee, rlee@comp.uark.edu, last modified: 12 June 2000