The Department of Religious Studies & Theology will co-sponsor a community forum entitled “Is Healthcare a Human Right?” on Sunday, November 8 at 7 p.m. in Regis South. This event is free and open to the public.
This forum will explore one dimension of the urgent matter of healthcare in the United States. Panelists will represent legal, medical, political and religious traditions. They include:
- John Kelly, PhD, professor, Department of Philosophy, Canisius College
- Mark Lema, MD, PhD, chair, Department of Anesthesiology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute
- Syed Sajid Husain MD, MS, MAS, FACNP, associate professor, Clinical Nuclear Medicine and Clinical Associate Professor of Eadiology at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Buffalo
Moderator will be The Rev. Allen W. Farabee, director of the Religion and Human Rights Project.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.” In the current national debate over healthcare reform and health insurance reform, some have argued that healthcare should be considered a basic right. Others have argued that healthcare should be treated like a market commodity. As with any “human right,” there are questions about why healthcare is a right, what is the basis of its being a human right, how to implement or defend this right, and if it involves public policy, how to pay to enforce this right.
The forum is co-presented by the Religion & Human Rights Project, a program of the Network of Religious Communities.
Submitted by: Marilyn Tokarczyk, administrative associate, religious studies & theology
