The rights of children to health care.

The rights of children to health care.

It is remarkable that malnutrition is still implicated in more than half the deaths of children worldwide. Malnutrition renders children chronically prone to illness and impairs intellectual development. It is within the power of governments to change this grievous legacy-our world can feed our world's children. Yet despite the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 24.2C...

Smokers' rights to health care.

The question whether rights to health care should be altered by smoking behaviour involves wideranging implications for all who indulge in hazardous behaviours, and involves complex economic utilitarian arguments. This paper examines current debate in the UK and suggest the major significance of the controversy has been ignored. That this discussion exists at all implies increasing division ove...

The Natural Rights of Children

What does libertarian theory, Murray Rothbard’s theory in particular, tell us about the rights of children? The two foundational principles of Rothbardian libertarianism are the sanctity of private property and the rule of non-aggression. Persons, including children, are “self-owners”. Yet children, at a young age, are not yet capable of functioning fully as “self-owners.” They must be cared fo...

Positive rights, negative rights and health care.

In the current debate about healthcare reform in the USA, advocates for government-ensured universal coverage assume that health care is a right. Although this position is politically popular, it is sometimes challenged by a restricted view of rights popular with libertarians and individualists. The restricted view of rights only accepts 'negative' rights as legitimate rights. Negative rights, ...

Justice and rights to health care.