How do socialized health care proponents conclude that their is a "right" to health care when a right is something that cannot be taking away from you, and health care is something that people do not inherently possess?
by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 5
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I think you have the definition of a "right" slightly wrong. Dictionary.com defines it as "a just claim or title, whether legal, prescriptive, or moral" or "that which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees, moral principles, etc." I think everyone has a just claim to healthcare. In a society that aspires to be moral, it's messed up to let people die for want of better healthcare when money is all that stands between the person and the care.
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They can make an argument based on the substantive due process clause, which gives you a right to life, liberty, and property. Liberty has been interpreted to include the right to use contraception or to send your children to public schools. The right to life could just as well include a right to health care. I'm not saying that argument is likely to win in court, but it's not a frivolous argument. In your comments to EzA, you discount arguments based on moral rights. I see no reason to discount these arguments. Even if there is no right in the constitution to health care, the fact that there is a moral right is a good reason to pass a statute giving you a legally enforceable right to health care. Indeed, the justification for many statutes is to protect disputed moral rights, like the right in many states not to have to live in a state where gay people can be married.
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When one needs health care to be able to pursue 'life' then it becomes a necessity. And since when does your life become something that cannot be taken away?
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Why do you think they are trying to give people healthcare? All men were allegedly created equal, but that wasn't apparent since we had to make the 13th amendment now was it?
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Simple... The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is taken to be the standing declaration of all those rights considered to be the minimum standards for each person. Each right listed is accepted to be a basic human right. Article 25(1) of the UDHR: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and MEDICAL CARE and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control" Further - these rights were codified, legally, into the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights. The right to health protection and health care is listed in Article 12, if I remember rightly. The US hasn't ratified this covenant. That doesn't mean that these things aren't basic human rights, but that America doesn't want to give them.
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