Health care is not a right
May 12th, 2008 | by Brian T. Schwartz |
Last Saturday I attended a Front Range Objectivism event featuring Yaron Brook , Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute . His talk reminded me that I have yet to address a fundamental issue on this blog: that health care is not a right. As Brook wrote in an article at Forbes.com earlier this year:
The solution to this ongoing crisis is to recognize that the very idea of a “right” to health care is a perversion. There can be no such thing as a “right” to products or services created by the effort of others, and this most definitely includes medical products and services. Rights, as our founding fathers conceived them, are not claims to economic goods, but freedoms of action.
You are free to see a doctor and pay him for his services–no one may forcibly prevent you from doing so. But you do not have a “right” to force the doctor to treat you without charge or to force others to pay for your treatment. The rights of some cannot require the coercion and sacrifice of others.
For more on this topic, see:
- The Right to Medical Care , by Sheldon Richman (~1400 words)
- Health care is not a right , by Leonard Peikoff. (~3000 words)
Thanks to Roland at The Moratorium Site for the graphic.
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