The Ban

The Rights of Man

I can’t believe I fell for it. It stood in stark opposition to everything I believe about how life is organized, who and what we’re meant to be. It should have sounded alarms — and it did, but I shut them off, because I figured they were more reactive than thoughtful, that they were kneejerk disagreement. But fall for it I did.

The issue was health care, and the person with whom I was discussing it was my dad. We don’t see eye to eye on many things when it comes to politics or religion, but he’s my dad, and I respect and love him. He’s also a lot smarter than me, even though, once again, I think he’s wrong about pretty much everything, because those differences don’t come from intelligence, but from POV; he looks at the world through a very different set of eyes than me. So we got to talking about health care within the confines of whether or not someone has a right to it. Now, a right is a very powerful thing; it means that, beyond politics, beyond law, there are basic preconditions which should and must govern human interaction with a government, that there are things with a government is obligated to do or not do. The basic civil rights are freedoms of speech and religion and those derived from them, which my dad supports fully. He does not, however, believe health care is a right, and his argument seemed convincing at first.

What he said was that the basic rights among the first ten amendments are rights which prevent people from acting, rather than compel them to acting. That was the underlying principle: a right is not something that could force other people to act. That’s not a liberty but a coercion, denying others their freedom to choose. Now, I didn’t have an immediate answer for this. I should have, but I didn’t. For some reason, his case made sense to me, even as it violated my worldview. I suppose there’s more individualist in me than I like to believe.

Now, I couldn’t cite Catechism to the man. He’s not Catholic.

2211 The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:
- the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family’s own moral and religious convictions;

- the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;

- the freedom to profess one’s faith, to hand it on, and raise one’s children in it, with the necessary means and institutions;

- the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate;

- in keeping with the country’s institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits;

- the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;

- the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority.

But it’s all there. There is a right to medical care. Now, how can these be reconciled? The basic difference is one of understanding what a right is. For my dad, a right is simply something that prevents the government from interfering in your life. Freedom is freedom from government involvement., government coercion, government requirement, and nothing could ever be a right which tramples on my God-givern ability to say eff off and leave you in the dirt. But that’s not the only conception of a right, neither is it the proper one.

The truth of the matter is that we are not wholly-independent autonomous units with no obligations toward each other. The right to medical care is a community right, something that strengthens and upholds the unit of the community, respects its individual members, values them as made in God’s image, and recognizes the inherant dignity belong to each. Rights cannot be taken solely as protections against government intrusion, but as aspects of justice, justice being each person getting what they deserve, what they are owed, not by any debt, but simply by the virtue of their being human.

See, you’ll notice the rights enumerated above cover civil and social rights: freedom of religion, freedom to own property, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly and representation — but rights to health care, property, and security. Taken wholly, this is a blueprint for a just society where freedom of conscience lives alongside consciences fully formed.