Health/Wellbeing as a Human Right: Addressing Violations

This opinion editorial discusses the violation of the right to health and well-being and proposes solutions based on the principles of human dignity and common good from Catholic Social Teachings.

Running head: NURSING
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Health/wellbeing as a human right (violations)
The population of every country in the world is increasing day and night. However, the
issue that worries me as a student studying nursing and would be a nurse in future is the issue of
violation of the right of health and well-being. The Catholic Social Teachings elaborates how
human beings should interact. It uses the two vital principles that is the principle of human
dignity and the principle of the common good to teach people on how to live with others in the
society as children of God. In this opinion editorial, it is going to make us of common good and
human dignity to elaborate on how people should address the challenge of violation of right of
health to human beings.
The meaning of human dignity from the Catholic Social teachings is that human beings
possess the sense of dignity if they carry out themselves with integrity and respect to one another
according Brady, (2017). In the context of denial of the right to well-being, the department of
health and the entire government are missing the point of human dignity. One of the ways of
addressing the issue of violation of the right health is to create awareness to the authority on the
importance of health to human being. The life of human being is from God in reference to
Etzioni, (2014). The authority should know that life of every individual is from God. When they
bare aware of the situation they can mobilize other members to pass a rule to fight for universal
health care to everyone. Apart from that, there are solutions such as giving out health insurance
to everybody in the community to assist them get healthcare in any hospital no matter where they
are in the nation. It is also important to increase the number of nurses and some can even offer
mobile services to the members of the society. To restore the spirit of human dignity, there are
several things that as a nurse I see them helpful in this context. One of the solutions is to bring
universal healthcare according to Nishino, (2017). Everyone can have an insurance card that at

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any time they feel unwell they can approach any health center and get treatment. The second
issue is passing a law that approves universal health care to everyone no matter where they come
from in the country. All these factors will restore human dignity and make many to see the life of
human being treated with respect.
On the other hand, the Catholic Social Thought explains the common good as something
that help all members in the society according to Melé, (2016). When one considers the issue of
restricting access to health, there are some people who are able to access quality health from
other parts of the nation or outside the country. These are leaders who take their family for
treatment outside the country. However, this is against the principle of the common good. With
common good, the institution of the activity should benefit everybody in the community. When
there is restriction on healthcare services rich families go and afford services from other places
leaving the less fortunate suffering. The best thing to do in order to achieve the principle of
common good is that the leaders should join hands with the citizens to fight on the suspension of
the restriction to healthcare services. Consequently, as a nurse in future, I can use my skills to
offer free services to some individual. By offering such services everybody would have
benefitted and thus what common good principle requires from everyone. Besides that,
hospitality, it is also important to spread the gospel to other colleagues to reach more people who
cannot access health services as this would promote the spirit of common good.
Everybody who call himself or herself as a Christian should maintain the Principles of
Catholic Teachings. The principle of human dignity and common good applies to every
individual. It is very painful when one has the skills and the capability of offering services to
others but leave them because there is restriction on how to give others services. Restricting the

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access to health care is against God’s teachings and everyone should try to teach others on what
human dignity and common good requires as illustrated above.

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References
Brady, B. V. (2017). Essential Catholic Social Thought 2nd edition. Orbis Books.
Etzioni, A. (2014). Common good. The encyclopedia of political thought, 603-610.
Melé, D. (2016). Virtues, values, and principles in Catholic social teaching. Handbook of Virtue
Ethics in Business and Management, 1-12.
Nishino, M. (2017). Some Reflections on Human Dignity and Human Life. ARCHIV FUR
RECHTS-UND SOZIALPHILOSOPHIE, 103(3), 304-321.