ABSTRACT

This book examines the idea of a fundamental entitlement to health and healthcare from a human rights perspective.

The volume is based on a particular conceptual reasoning that balances critical thinking and pragmatism in the context of a universal right to health. Thus, the primary focus of the book is the relationship or contrast between rights-based discourse/jurisprudential arguments and real-life healthcare contexts. The work sets out the constraints that are imposed on a universal right to health by practical realities such as economic hardship in countries, lack of appropriate governance, and lack of support for the implementation of this right through appropriate resource allocation. It queries the degree to which the existence of this legally enshrined right and its application in instruments such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) can be more than an ephemeral aspiration but can, actually, sustain, promote, and instil good practice. It further asks if social reality and the inequalities that present themselves therein impede the implementation of laudable human rights, particularly within marginalised communities and cadres of people. It deliberates on what states and global bodies do, or could do, in practical terms to ensure that such rights are moved beyond the aspirational and become attainable and implementable. Divided into three parts, the first analyses the notion of a universal inalienable right to health(care) from jurisprudential, anthropological, legal, and ethical perspectives. The second part considers the translation of international human rights norms into specific jurisdictional healthcare contexts. With a global perspective it includes countries with very different legal, economic, and social contexts. Finally, the third part summarises the lessons learnt and provides a pathway for future action.

The book will be an invaluable resource for students, academics, and policymakers working in the areas of health law and policy, and international human rights law.

part A|78 pages

International human rights and the right to health

chapter 2|12 pages

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, part 1

Articles 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6

chapter 3|24 pages

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, part 2

Articles 7, 12, 16, 18, 19, and 25

chapter 5|17 pages

Global health rights in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

On the doctrine of the minimum core obligations and a co-responsibility to care

part B|74 pages

Health Rights across the temporal stages in specific countries

part |72 pages

Beginning of life and children

chapter 6|19 pages

Assisted reproductive technologies in Uganda

Law and practice

chapter 7|20 pages

Abortion and conscience

A crossroads for Northern Ireland

part |162 pages

Middle of life

chapter 9|13 pages

The right to health in Hong Kong

Incorporation, implementation, and balancing

chapter 12|22 pages

Realising the right to healthealth in Kenya

Connecting health governance outcomes to patient safety perspectives

chapter 13|17 pages

Developing an intrinsic patient safety culture in health systems

The NHS experience

chapter 14|15 pages

Clinical negligence litigation procedure, policy, and practice in England

The product of a legal cycle rather than an application of a right to health?

chapter 15|20 pages

Patient safety and human rights

chapter 16|20 pages

Fundamental rights to health care and charging overseas visitors for NHS treatment

Diversity across the United Kingdom’s devolved jurisdictions

part |72 pages

End of life

chapter 19|16 pages

Autonomy and the right to (end one’s?) life

A German perspective

chapter 21|20 pages

Comparative perspectives on medical aid in dying

The United States and Canada

part C|14 pages

The application of a universal right to health in practice

chapter 22|12 pages

A right to health

A right granted and agreed, but limited or denied?