Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

The Emerging Right of Medical Self-Defense

I, the center of the universe, have the right to all means necessary to keep me alive. So, for example, if I need a new kidney not to die, I have the right to buy one. I have to admit this makes a fairly creepy but real kind of libertarian/Hobbesian sense. (Thanks to Ivan the K.)

Discussions - 4 Comments

Heh. Yeah . . . in a creepy sort of "all the sick rich people get to live while all the sick poor people die" way. Please. Keep that kind of "right" out of my community.

Matt wrote: Heh. Yeah . . . in a creepy sort of "all the sick rich people get to live while all the sick poor people die" way. Please. Keep that kind of "right" out of my community.

There are many things the rich can purchase that the non-rich can't. What is your criteria for saying what the rich can use their wealth to acquire and what the rich can't?

The example here is a matter of life or death. That's a fairly clean line.

But what about a procedure that adds 20 years to a person's life but costs $10 million? Can we say that the rich should not be allowed to spend their wealth on that? If so, why?

How about a vaccination that insures the recipient never gets a cold again. Price tag: $250,000. Not a matter of life or death. Really just a matter of avoiding inconvenience. Should that be denied those who can afford it because those with less means can't?

I'm not being flippant here. I agree there's a sort of creepiness to the concept of the rich buying up all the donor organs. I'm just wondering whether there's a line that can be drawn between what is right and what is not. Is it the question of a imminent death that draws that line?

Actually Don quite a few people die every year from colds/flu

Dr. Lawler what makes this "right" emerging or new?

Perhaps if Aristotle is the threshold then Hobbes is new. But America as a Lockeian/Hobbesian nation is a conceptualization that predates the founding.

John, You may be on to the irony of the post. Thank God we're not simply a Lockean/Hobbesian nation, but we may be on the road to becoming one. Kidneys may soon go to the highest bidder.

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