by Jeffry R Fisher

Created on: March 16, 2010

The phrase "right to health care" is ambiguous, and therefore misleading, so it deserves some analysis rather than blanket dismissal. We *do* have a right to liberty to care for our health and to contract with others for treatment. However, we do not have a right to demand that others pay for it.

This dissonance between a right to liberty and a "right" (claim) to an entitlement is at the heart of many populist fallacies. If you ever read about what "rights" populists see in the 9th amendment, your eyes will bleed. It's enough to stop one from using the word "right" in modern political debate; people just don't comprehend (or haven't been properly taught) the difference between a right (ownership claim) and mere covetousness (a desire to take what someone else owns).

However, even if it's a privilege to have the wealth to hire all of the medical services of our desires, we do still have the right to liberty in seeking the services that we can afford. Sadly, one could fill a whole book with all of the ways that American government at various levels violates our freedoms to treat ourselves and to contract for treatment as we wish.

Just one example: From the FDA to various state-level bureaucrats, thousands of Americans are being virtually murdered each year because drugs and procedures are being denied or delayed. Yet these deaths go unpunished and even mostly unreported simply because one must wait years, sometimes decades, to prove in hindsight that a treatment has been safe (enough) and effective (enough) all along.

When a desperate, terminally ill citizen has exhausted all other options and is willing to accept the risk (even risk of  death) of trying an experimental treatment, by what authority can the FDA prohibit it, turning risk of death into certainty? What kind of ghouls infest the FDA that they care more about covering their own asses rather than saving lives and respecting liberties?

Don't they realize that besides hope for a cure, terminally ill patients accept risk knowing that even if they die, their deaths may gain meaning by contributing to discoveries that save others? Isn't it a RIGHT of any American, even a terminally ill one, to lay down his or her life for one's fellow citizens?

Yes, we have a right to health care, BUT... It's not the right to be patronized by politicians buying votes with other people's money. Instead, it's the right of a noble people to reclaim liberty that has been violated for too long.

Learn more about this author, Jeffry R Fisher.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.