I Believe In Health Care Essay

Different people understand human rights differently. If the question of human rights is given to a number of people, different interpretations will be arrived at. To me, human rights are the freedom and rights which are guaranteed to all of us because we are humans. In other words, they are all the things which we are entitled to or allowed to do and which cannot be influenced by those with money or in power. These rights are not given to certain people because they belong to a certain group but are supposed to be given to each one of us. Unfortunately, these human rights were not recognized until Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 BC and decided that all humans were supposed to be treated equally and thus set all the slaves free. Cyrus the Great recorded the rules which were supposed to govern how humans were to treat each other.

Healthcare is one of such fundamental rights which all human beings should enjoy. No one in power should create a situation which would endanger people’s right to healthcare or prevent them from getting access to healthcare. However, this fundamental right has been violated either directly or indirectly in several parts of the world including the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa (Farmer, P., 2009). According to Paul Farmer’s video “I Believe In Health Care As A Human Right” poor people in some countries die every day out of diseases that could have otherwise been prevented through vaccination. Others die of malnutrition since they have no access to good food and clean water. In fact, this is something I can relate to myself as an immigrant who was born and partially raised in Pakistan, I have seen people die because they simply couldn’t afford the healthcare (hospital bill, medicine costs, etc.) costs that were needed to save their