Medical Responsibility

Abstract

These comments seek to take issue with the contention that society has a responsibility to provide its members with any needed health care. In order to deal with this claim, we must first make clear exactly what it meant by the proposition. I take it that those who embrace this view mean considerably more than that each of us has a moral obligation to contribute to those in need of medical attention who are unable, for one reason or another, to afford the necessary care. This is a moral proposition and is traditionally dealt with under the heading of charity. But the contention, as here used, means considerably more since its main implications are not moral but primarily political.