Health Care and Intellectual Property
HEALTH CARE AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
“If we believe men have any personal rights at all as human beings, they have an absolute right to such measure of good health as society, and society alone, can give them” -Aristotle, 4th Century B.C. INTRODUCTION
A good health in a nation’s population is not only a moral good in itself, but also a prerequisite for economic growth and sustainable development. A right to healthcare has long been recognized in most civilized societies and now accepted globally. Health is foundationally important because of its intrinsic value and singular contribution to human functioning, to individuals as well as the community as a whole, necessary for much of the joy, creativity, and productivity that a person derives from life. Lawrence O. Gostin’s definition of public health is much significant. Several themes emerge from this definition: (1) government power and duty, (2) coercion and limits on state power, (3) government's partners in the “public health system,” (4) the population focus, (5) communities and civic participation, (6) the prevention orientation, and (7) social justice. Public health can be achieved only through collective action, not through individual endeavors. The community as a whole has a stake in environmental protection, hygiene and sanitation, clean air and surface water, uncontaminated food and drinking water, safe roads and products, and control of infectious disease. It differs from medicine, which has the individual patient as its primary focus. Public health, on the other hand, seeks to understand the conditions and causes of ill health (and good health) in the populace as a whole. It seeks to assure a favorable environment in which people can maintain their health.
Social justice captures the twin moral impulses that animate public health: to advance human well-being by improving health and to do so particularly by focusing on the needs of the most disadvantaged which create a richer
“If we believe men have any personal rights at all as human beings, they have an absolute right to such measure of good health as society, and society alone, can give them” -Aristotle, 4th Century B.C. INTRODUCTION
A good health in a nation’s population is not only a moral good in itself, but also a prerequisite for economic growth and sustainable development. A right to healthcare has long been recognized in most civilized societies and now accepted globally. Health is foundationally important because of its intrinsic value and singular contribution to human functioning, to individuals as well as the community as a whole, necessary for much of the joy, creativity, and productivity that a person derives from life. Lawrence O. Gostin’s definition of public health is much significant. Several themes emerge from this definition: (1) government power and duty, (2) coercion and limits on state power, (3) government's partners in the “public health system,” (4) the population focus, (5) communities and civic participation, (6) the prevention orientation, and (7) social justice. Public health can be achieved only through collective action, not through individual endeavors. The community as a whole has a stake in environmental protection, hygiene and sanitation, clean air and surface water, uncontaminated food and drinking water, safe roads and products, and control of infectious disease. It differs from medicine, which has the individual patient as its primary focus. Public health, on the other hand, seeks to understand the conditions and causes of ill health (and good health) in the populace as a whole. It seeks to assure a favorable environment in which people can maintain their health.
Social justice captures the twin moral impulses that animate public health: to advance human well-being by improving health and to do so particularly by focusing on the needs of the most disadvantaged which create a richer