Healthcare as a Universal Human Right

This important book outlines how, despite varying levels of global socio-economic development, governments around the world can guarantee their citizens’ fundamental right to basic healthcare.

Grounded in the philosophical position that healthcare is an essential element to human dignity, the book moves beyond this theoretical principle to offer policy-makers a basis for health policies based on public accountability and social responsiveness. Also emphasizing the importance of global co-operation, particularly in the area of health promotion and communication, it addresses, too, the issue of financial sustainability, suggesting robust mechanisms of economic and social regulation. New opportunities created by e-health, evidence-based data and artificial intelligence are all highlighted and discussed, as is the issue of patient rights.

Students and researchers across bioethics, public health and medical sociology will find this book fascinating reading, as will policy-makers in the field.

Rui Nunes is a full professor of bioethics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto. He is the president and founder of the Portuguese Association of Bioethics and is a member of the Portuguese National Council of Ethics for Life Sciences. He has published nearly 30 books in different areas. He got international recognition due to the proposal in Brasil and Portugal of the legalization of the living will and due to the proposal to UNESCO of the Universal Declaration on Gender Equality. Between 2016 and 2021 he was the Head of the Research Department of the International Network of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics. He is the Secretary-General of the International Chair in Bioethics.