• Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Is healthcare a right or a privilege II

Status
Not open for further replies.

Matt Black

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I say what I see: enjoying a right whilst pretending it doesn't exist is either hypocrisy or self-delusion. And legal decisions and documents can confer rights eg: Magna Carta, US Constitution etc
 

InTheLight

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I say what I see: enjoying a right whilst pretending it doesn't exist is either hypocrisy or self-delusion. And legal decisions and documents can confer rights eg: Magna Carta, US Constitution etc

I think we are talking past each other. It would be helpful if you gave your definition of a "right".

I will start.
In the United States a right is a legal entitlement guaranteed by the Constitution. The most famous rights are found in the Bill of Rights, or the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. Just because something is legal does not mean it is a right, as laws can be repealed or changed.
 

Rob_BW

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
What the Constitution Does Not Do
The Constitution does not give you rights. The founders considered your rights to be "God-given" or "natural rights" — you are born with all your rights. The constitution does, however, protect your rights by:

  • Limiting the powers of government by granting to it only those specific powers that are listed in the Constitution; (This has not proven to be effective of late.)
  • Enumerating certain, specific rights which you retain. These are listed in the Bill of Rights.
Purpose of the Constitution

Not my Constitution.
 

Matt Black

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Ok you both seem to be arguing from Natural Law concepts which stem as much from the Enlightenment and classical Greece as they do from the Bible and Christian thought and therefore are not sufficient in framing a specifically Christian answer to the issue at hand
 

carpro

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
My position is consistent. I don't have a right to anyones goods or labor, which is what healtchcare consists of.

I have a right to live, assemble, reap the rewards of my own labor, and a few others. These rights are innate to me. They do not require goods or labor from someone else. I have these rights until someone physically deprives me of the, through theft, murder, slavery, & etc.

I don't have a right to anyone else's stuff. Not their medicine, access to their operating tables, not their billable hours of labor as a doctor. And not someone else's food, clothing, shelter, & etc.

Explain to me how I have a right to someone else's stuff?

Correct.

Healthcare is a service provided by others, who , for the most part, pay for their own education, office space and other tools of the trade. Just like attorneys and veteranarians,They are entitled to paid for their services by the people who use them.
 

Rob_BW

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
....but if you want to appeal to Natural Law, then you only have to go as far as John Locke to have health mentioned as a right.

This article is particularly pertinent to our discussion: http://www.marketsandmorality.com/index.php/mandm/article/viewFile/924/838

That author takes quite a leap from just this one statememt:

"Every one, as he is bound to preserve himself, and not to quit his station willfully, so by the like reason, when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not, unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another."

I don't see how one can say Locke believed in a natural right to healthcare from the above.
 

Rob_BW

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
And comparing the Magna Carta to the Constitution, barons demanding rights from their sovereign king is a far cry from men outlining rights that exist apart from government in a document designed to limit their own government.
 

carpro

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I think we are talking past each other. It would be helpful if you gave your definition of a "right".

I will start.
In the United States a right is a legal entitlement guaranteed by the Constitution. The most famous rights are found in the Bill of Rights, or the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. Just because something is legal does not mean it is a right, as laws can be repealed or changed.


It's the socialist mindset. They have a "right" to everything...as long as someone else pays the bill.
 

Matt Black

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Correct.

Healthcare is a service provided by others, who , for the most part, pay for their own education, office space and other tools of the trade. Just like attorneys and veteranarians,They are entitled to paid for their services by the people who use them.
And what if the people needing treatment can't afford to pay for them directly?
 

Matt Black

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
That author takes quite a leap from just this one statememt:

"Every one, as he is bound to preserve himself, and not to quit his station willfully, so by the like reason, when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not, unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another."

I don't see how one can say Locke believed in a natural right to healthcare from the above.
Except that Locke expressly included the right to health in his definition of 'natural rights'. He goes on to say that we must not "take away or impair...that which tends to the preservation of life ".

It's pretty explicit; I don't see how you can talk your way out of this one...
 

Matt Black

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Wait you want to me to answer your begging the questions fallacy?
I want you to explain how you square the circle of claiming to be "pro-life" * and yet at the same time be anti- the principle of universal access to healthcare.

*If you won't answer it then the obvious qualifier is "offer expires at birth"
 

Rolfe

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Is healthcare a right or a privilege II

Society has made Healthcare in the U.S., to a limited extent, a right. People in the Profession are required to treat visitors to Emergency Rooms. Beyond that, like it or no, it becomes a privilege.

Carpro's post number 109 is spot on. People have a right to be paid for their labor and expertise.
 

Matt Black

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
No-one here, certainly not me, is denying the right for heslthcarenprofessionals to be paid a fair wage for their labour
 

Rob_BW

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Except that Locke expressly included the right to health in his definition of 'natural rights'. He goes on to say that we must not "take away or impair...that which tends to the preservation of life ".

It's pretty explicit; I don't see how you can talk your way out of this one...

Except that Locke expressly included the right to health in his definition of 'natural rights'. He goes on to say that we must not "take away or impair...that which tends to the preservation of life ".

It's pretty explicit; I don't see how you can talk your way out of this one...
He wrote that if they have the means/objects to provide for their health, we can't take them away from someone.

Where did he say we must provide someone the means/objects needed to maintain health?
 

Rob_BW

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
A good letter on the topic by a physician:

"Recently, a colleague told me he feels that health care is a “right.” This was not a novel idea: for the past several years, I have heard many learned people repeat the same phrase. That the phrase came from a fellow physician, however, struck me as particularly interesting. I wondered how my colleague could take such a naïve view of rights, given how they are articulated in the founding documents of the United States."

Health Care as a “Right” | The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top