The right to health care--gains and gaps.

The right to health care.

They have needs, and because they live within a welfare state, these needs confer entitlements--rights--to the resources of people like me. Their needs and their entitlements establish a silent relation between us. As we stand together in line at the post office, while they cash their pension cheques, some tiny portion of my income is transferred into their pockets through the numberless capill...

AIDS and the right to health care.

A 1987 New York Times editorial noted that the refusal of physicians and dentists to treat patients infected with the AIDS virus is the most painful symptom produced by the fear of AIDS. 3 An editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) echoed this concern. 4 C. Everett Koop, the Surgeon General of the United States, admitted that he is getting more reports of health care...

Minors and the right to consent to health care.

The notion that many minors have the capacity and, indeed, the right to make important decisions about health care has been well established in federal and state policy. Many states specifically authorize minors to consent to contraceptive services, testing and treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, prenatal care and delivery services, treatment for alcohol and drug abuse, a...

The right to health-care and the regionalization of the health-care system

In Italy, the process of decentralization of the health-care organization was given a strong boost during the last decade of the twentieth century, according to some inspiring lines of the Law itself, which established in 1978 the National Healthcare Service. Regions were given more and more autonomy and legislative powers in this field, so that they gained a substantial role in programming, or...

Preclinical stroke research: gains and gaps.