Social Justice, Access to Health Care and Abortion Debate - Essay Example

Universal access to health care is crucial as this is a basic human right. The health of a society is affected by not simply the ease of visiting a doctor, but also by the social status and the existing unfairness in universal coverage. Universal coverage of a population implies that when the population seeks health care, they receive at least a package of the service at a fair cost at the delivery point. Before legalizing any aspect of health intervention such as cloning or euthanasia, universal access should be ensured.

Cloning and euthanasia have paramount impact on the culture and taboos of the population; thus, any application without prior universal access to the community will violate a population’s social rights. Ethical issues may arise in this case because the two medical advancements are not fully acceptable by all cultures. According to Pan American Health Organization, the ethical issue relating to euthanasia is if it is permissible to take one’s own life or if another person should be a partisan in taking another person’s life.

Advocates of the practice argue that it is humane for a person to help another person die if it is the only recommended way of eliminating their pain and suffering. Those opposing it argue that it amounts to murder and contradicts the fundamentals of social justice. Proponents of human cloning argue that the technology is a huge progression towards human and technological evolution. Those opposing it claim that it belittles the divine value associated with humans thereby reducing them into disposable artifacts.

Ensuring universal access before applying such medical interventions will address the mentioned divergent views and avert their unfair or genocidal impacts. According to Lu, the benefits of any medical intervention cannot be realized if they are not extended equally within the society (79). Access to healthcare is a requirement for social justice. Therefore, the legislation should lay equal emphasis on the universal coverage of medical services and related healthcare benefits to all. Cloning and euthanasia are forms of health care that have a central role to play in ensuring social justice as they contribute in promoting the welfare and opportunities among community members.

This sustains people’s participation in all spheres of life. Lu and Hsiao also posit that the relationship between health care and opportunity suggests that the distributive justice should be ensured in all sectors of the health care system. This is in order to uphold the virtue of equality of opportunity as stipulated in the concept of social justice (82). Some of the challenges to ensuring universal coverage and access to health care are related to structural inequalities in regards to race, gender, ethnicity and caste.

Achievement of universal access to health care calls for improvement in three dimensions namely; expansion of the extent of financial protection available to the population, putting in place efficient organizational and structural mechanisms for improving financial protection and widening the range of services available at a subsidized cost. Deal with the main pros and cons on the abortion debate and spell out what the pro-life, pro- choice and more moderate positions are. Then state your own view on this to justify and defend it from likely criticisms.

Is there a slippery slope effect here from allowing abortions? Will society