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Global Health, Vulnerable Populations, and Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Solomon R. Benatar
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Extract

The most common response to the challenge of protecting health through law is to focus on protecting the rights of vulnerable individuals and to enhance their access to health care. Each one of us is vulnerable or potentially vulnerable because of the fragile, existential nature of the human condition. Catastrophic and unexpected events could instantaneously transform us from a state of total independence and potential vulnerability to one of extreme vulnerability and complete dependence. Some legal provisions have the potential to provide a modicum of protection when we find ourselves in those situations (for example, through legislation, effective emergency health services can be created to reduce the impact of our potential vulnerability). There are also legal provisions that contribute to beneficial social circumstances; for example, legislation enabling universal access to medical care, and operationalizing respect for the individual’s right to health care, as advocated for by other authors in this issue.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , Spring 2013 , pp. 42 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2013

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