Wendy Austin
3rd Floor Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2G3
Human
rights may be the most globalized political value of our times. The rights paradigm has been criticized, however, for being theoretically unsound, legalistic, individualistic and based on the assumption that there is a given and universal humanness. Its use in the area of
health is relatively new. Proponents point to its power to frame health as an entitlement rather than a commodity. The problems and the possibilities of a rights approach in addressing health ethics issues are explored in this article.
Key Words: ethics • health • human rights • right to health