Using the human rights paradigm in health ethics: the problems and the possibilities

Human rights may be the most globalized political value of our times. The rights para-digm has been criticized, however, for being theoretically unsound, legalistic, individu-alistic and based on the assumption that there is a given and universal humanness. Its use in the area of health is relatively new. Proponents point to its power to frame health as an entitlement rather than a commodity. The problems and the possibilities of a rights approach in addressing health ethics issues are explored in this article