This paper offers four arguments against a moral human right to health, two denying that the right exists and two denying that it would be very useful (even if it did exist). One of my sceptical arguments is familiar, while the other is not.
The unfamiliar argument is an argument from the nature of health. Given a realistic view of health production, a dilemma arises for the human right to health. Either a state's moral duty to preserve the health of its citizens is not justifiably aligned in relation to the causes of health or it does not correlate with the human right to health. It follows that no one holds a justified moral human right to health against the state.
Education and herd immunity against infectious disease both illustrate this dilemma. In the former case, the state's moral duty correlates with the human right to health only if it demands too much from a cause of health; and in the latter, only if it demands nothing from a cause of health (that is, too little).
In this article, I propose and defend a new analysis of claim-rights. My proposal is a hybrid of the two best known analyses, the Will theory and the Interest theory. For good reason, the debate between these theories is often regarded as a stand-off. That is because the Will theory has had no satisfactory answer to the Interest theory's best objections (inalienable rights and incompetent right-holders), while the Interest theory has likewise had no satisfactory answer to the Will theory's best objection (third party beneficiaries). After reviewing these various objections and criticizing some recent attempts to meet them, I introduce my hybrid alternative and explain how it provides a satisfactory solution to all of these objections.
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