The synergistic relationship between health and human rights: a case study using female genital mutilation.

This article explores the usefulness of the human rights paradigm for dealing with the legal, political, and social questions raised by health issues, with particular emphasis on the role of health professionals. Health and human rights, each ways of defining and advancing human well-being, have the individual as their major concern. The concept of health rights encompasses individual autonomy in decision making, access to the health care needed to implement one's decisions, and the influence of broader economic, social and cultural conditions-without which choice is unavailable to most individuals.