The rights debate

To date, no proposal for systemic healthcare reform directly addresses whether healthcare is a right for all Americans. In fact, some proposals have avoided the issue altogether. Typically, proponents of reform have been more comfortable approaching healthcare services as something society has a moral obligation to provide rather than something individuals have a right to. Such an approach is consistent with the liberal democratic tradition's understanding of rights, which stresses individual freedom and autonomy. According to the Catholic social teaching of the past century, however, the right to participate in society takes precedence over the right to be free of governmental intrusions. From the Catholic perspective, furthermore, lack of access to healthcare is tantamount to being denied full involvement in social life. This tradition has stressed repeatedly that each individual achieves dignity and fulfillment only by being actively involved in the social world. In debates over systemic healthcare reform, it is imperative that advocates of the Catholic perspective recognize the difference between the meaning of "rights" as it has developed in their tradition and the meaning that has emerged from the context of the liberal democratic tradition. Their challenge will be to give the debate's key term a meaning that better reflects the tradition of Catholic social teaching.