Right to health
"[7] Health is briefly addressed in the United Nations' International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which was adopted in 1965 and entered into effect in 1969.
The Convention calls upon States to "Prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, color, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law," and references under this provision "The right to public health, medical care, social security and social services.
In this respect, the General Comment holds that the specific steps towards realizing the right to health enumerated in Article 12 are non-exhaustive and strictly illustrative in nature.
The General Comment also makes additional reference to the question of health equity, a concept not addressed in the initial International Covenant.
Additional emphasis is placed upon non-discrimination on the basis of gender, age, disability, or membership in indigenous communities.
Subsequent sections of the General Comment detail the obligations of nations and international organizations towards a right to health.
International obligations include allowing for the enjoyment of health in other countries; preventing violations of health in other countries; cooperating in the provision of humanitarian aid for disasters and emergencies; and refraining from use of embargoes on medical goods or personnel as an act of political or economic influence.
Article 3 calls upon parties to ensure that institutions and facilities for the care of children adhere to health standards.
Article 17 recognizes the child's right to access information that is pertinent to his/her physical and mental health and well-being.
Article 23 makes specific reference to the rights of disabled children, in which it includes health services, rehabilitation, preventive care.
States shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services."
Further provisions specify that health care for the disabled should be made available in local communities and that care should be geographically equitable, with additional statements against the denial or unequal provision of health services (including "food and fluids" and "life insurance") on the basis of disability.
The high costs of medicine and treatment make it problematic for poor countries to receive equal care.
He states, "Excellence without equity looms as the chief human-rights dilemma of health care in the 21st century.
Notably, this encompasses both patient and provider rights in the delivery of healthcare services, the latter being similarly open to frequent abuse by the states.
[24][25] For instance, racial and ethnic minorities may be segregated into poorer quality wards, disabled persons may be contained and forcibly medicated, drug users may be denied addiction treatment, women may be forced into vaginal examinations and may be denied life-saving abortions, suspected homosexual men may be forced into anal examinations, and women of marginalized groups and transgender persons may be forcibly sterilized.
For instance, particularly in countries with weak rule of law, healthcare providers are often forced to perform procedures which negate their morals, deny marginalized groups the best possible standards of care, breach patient confidentiality, and conceal crimes against humanity and torture.
[29][30] Legal reform as a mechanism to combat and prevent violations of patient and provider rights presents a promising approach.
[37] American writer and politician Richard Lamm vehemently argues against making healthcare a right.
Making healthcare a right would require governments to spend a large portion of its resources to provide its citizens with it.
Attempting to provide "beneficial" healthcare to all people utilizing limited resources could lead to economic collapse.
Imre J.P. Loefler, former editor of Nairobi Hospital Proceedings and frequent contributor to the British Medical Journal, argues that the financial and logistical burdens of ensuring health care for all are unattainable, and that resource constraints make it unrealistic to justify a right towards prolonging life indefinitely.
