My Stance: Health Care is Human Right

When thinking about the health care debate, I find myself pondering what I deem to be the most significant question of the debate: Is health care a human right? Well, I believe that those able to treat medical problems, by virtue of education and licensing, are obligated to help treat medical conditions. Also, I feel that so long as we pay taxes to a government that regulates medical education and practices, medications, and uses tax dollars to fund research we have a right to health care and a right to determine whether health care is human right (or at least a citizen right).

I find that I get peeved when people speak of human rights as if it is some objective thing like it's natural law. If anything, history is teaching us that human rights and civil rights is something that evolves with the society it serves. Should the people (or Congress) determine that health care for all is a right and passes the universal health care bill there is no questioning whether it is a right. Individual opinions, in essence, become irrelevant because the populace determined that deeming health care a right was the appropriate solution for the time. When circumstances change, the rights will change. Right now we have no agreed upon solution so individual opinions are important and influential. In my opinion, health care is a human right. I suppose Congress will determine whether my opinion is valid at this particular moment in time.