ABSTRACT
Human rights are a construction of Western political thought. Their antecedent can be traced to natural law, a branch of jurisprudence which already attracted passionate debates in ancient Greece. Medical care is one right that is generally accepted to belong to the second generation of human rights. Human rights claims typically come to be fought on an individualistic basis, rather than being based on collective political involvement. Also, human rights talk generally fails to highlight the existence of relations of power which underlie not only the denial but also the granting of a right. Delivery of rights, including that of medical services, depends upon the existence of an infrastructure that allows for such delivery. The concept of human rights has been invented in societies which, to a greater or lesser degree, employ the concept of constitutional rights. Neil Stammers is one of the few academics who advocate against examining and discussing human rights as if they were an abstract concept.
