Comments on: Do people have an intrinsic right to health care? https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/ Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:01:18 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Pearly Penile Papules https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542004 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:01:18 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542004 Unlike women, men do not readily discuss personal medical conditions and disorders with their friends. It is for this reason that pearly penile papules are very misunderstood.

It is not surprising that you would be plagued by worry and paranoia at the appearance of a bump on the rim of your penis. Immediately you would suspect venereal disease or even worse, cancer. The likelihood is that you do not have either, but rather a simple case of pearly penile papules. Pearly penile papules are very common among men, especially uncircumcised men. They are not as a result of bad hygiene and are not contagious in any way whatsoever. Many men actually find that they appear and disappear without any treatment at all.

However, if you are feeling uncomfortable with them, they can be effectively removed with a simple treatment of radiofrequency surgery. You should however consult your doctor and have them seen to should they emit a discharge or are physically painful.

]]> By: Lisa Stone https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542003 Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:11:37 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542003 I think WF should reduce their prices.

]]> By: SimonG https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542002 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:29:18 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542002 I don’t agree with the concept of inherent rights. However, I am happy to live in a country that has decided that letting people suffer and die because they can’t afford health care is a bad idea, just as we’ve decided that letting folk starve to death is something we don’t want in our society.

Other societies may differ.

The purely pragmatic fact of reduced overall cost doesn’t hurt either.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542001 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:01:37 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542001 If you are my facebook friend, you should check out the discussion on this topic going on on my facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/laden.greg?ref=name

(feel free to friend me if you like)

Now, I’m still on my first cup of cofeee, but I’ll get back to you’all on this oon.

]]> By: nails https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542000 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:39:38 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-542000 I don’t know why rights being socially constructed matters exactly.

Going off the assumption that suffering is a bad thing is all that is needed to see that healthcare should be available to everyone on some level. Believing that the poor (including children) deserve to die due to circumstance is a monsteous point of view and I am not sure how anyone can support it. Hell half of the reason that there are so many people living on the streets is because there aren’t good resources for the mentally ill- the problem self perpetuates by putting almost anyone with an illness into the poor house automatically.

I am also puzzled about why there is even a question about this applying to food. Of course it does. People do not deserve to die horrible deaths, from famine or disease, so that the rest of us can buy non essential things for ourselves.

]]> By: Dunc https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541999 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:12:00 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541999 Yes, rights are social constructs. Well done. Welcome to the 20th Century.

We don’t have the resources to give everyone perfect health-care.

We don’t have the resources to give anyone perfect anything. Perfection is unattainable.

]]> By: Nathan Myers https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541998 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:20:11 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541998 Russell is 100% right. If we provide medical care for all, it’s because we choose to do it, not because some idiot God of Rights decreed it. Those societies that do provide care for all are intrinsically better, along that axis, than those that don’t, cultural relativity be damned; if we do it, we’re better, yay for us. Having done it, we can start to look into food and housing, too. Societies that don’t make their people starve or freeze are better than the ones that don’t. North Korea sucks.

Government is just an organ of society. Sometimes government is the most effective way to make things happen. This has been well demonstrated to be one of those times.

]]> By: MadScientist https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541997 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:30:56 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541997 That’s right – if someone is sick and has no money, tough shit, they deserve to die. If someone doesn’t have money they can sleep with the pigeons along Lakeshore Drive. If they don’t have enough money to feed themselves they can get a job or die of starvation. Why should anyone care? Now I wonder if the people promoting that are religious; so far the most ardent supporters of being assholes seem to be religious folk.

]]> By: Robert https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541996 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:25:17 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541996 “In the rest of the industrialized world, it is assumed that the more equally and widely the burdens of illness are shared, the better off the population as a whole is likely to be. The reason the United States has forty-five million people without coverage is that its health-care policy is in the hands of people who disagree, and who regard health insurance not as the solution but as the problem.”

from “The Moral-Hazard Myth” in The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/08/29/050829fa_fact?currentPage=all

]]> By: Russell https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541995 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:42:22 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/13/do-people-have-an-intrinsic-ri/#comment-541995 Dan, with all due respect to Thomas Jefferson, natural rights philosophy is nonsense on stilts. The important issue of government serving the people remains. But the rational framework for thinking about that is more Rawls than Locke.

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