Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?
Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in America
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Rather than increase government spending and control, we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health.
It’s great to see Mr. Mackey invoke the Declaration of Independence to argue that there is no right to health care, as that great document doesn’t say we have a right to “life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and a $10 copay.” Our right to life doesn’t mean others are required to keep us alive. That would necessarily violate their rights. Our right to life is a restriction on others, forbidding them from taking our lives, and us taking theirs. Our rights are rights of action, forbidding others from stopping these actions, not rights to take the fruits of another’s labor.
No Right to Health Care
Thank you John Mackey for understanding and defending rights. I might have to start shopping at Whole Foods.
It’s great to see Mr. Mackey invoke the Declaration of Independence to argue that there is no right to health care, as that great document doesn’t say we have a right to “life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and a $10 copay.” Our right to life doesn’t mean others are required to keep us alive. That would necessarily violate their rights. Our right to life is a restriction on others, forbidding them from taking our lives, and us taking theirs. Our rights are rights of action, forbidding others from stopping these actions, not rights to take the fruits of another’s labor.