Review article: the moral right to health: a survey of available conceptions

Abstract

In recent years, there has been increasing recognition of both the philosophical questions engendered by the idea of a human right to health and the potential of philosophical analysis to help in the formulation of better policy. In this article, I attempt to locate recent work on the moral right to health in a number of historically established conceptions, with the aim of providing a map of the conceptual landscape as to the claims expressed by such a right.

Keywords:

• rights
• human rights
• health
• health care
• justice
• moral

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by UCL’s Centre for Humanities Interdisciplinary Research Projects. The author would like to thank Albert Weale, James Wilson, John Tasioulas and Jonathan Wolff for their many helpful comments in the preparation of this article.