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Medical Responsibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Ronald Hamowy
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Extract

These comments seek to take issue with the contention that society has a responsibility to provide its members with any needed health care. In order to deal with this claim, we must first make clear exactly what it meant by the proposition. I take it that those who embrace this view mean considerably more than that each of us has a moral obligation to contribute to those in need of medical attention who are unable, for one reason or another, to afford the necessary care. This is a moral proposition and is traditionally dealt with under the heading of charity. But the contention, as here used, means considerably more since its main implications are not moral but primarily political.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , Fall 2012 , pp. 532 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2012

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References

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