HLSU233 Nursing - Health/wellbeing

Health/wellbeing as a human right (violations)

The population of every country in the world is increasing day and night. However, the issue that worries me as a student studying nursing and would be a nurse in future is the issue of violation of the right of health and well-being. The Catholic Social Teachings elaborates how human beings should interact. It uses the two vital principles that is the principle of human dignity and the principle of the common good to teach people on how to live with others in the society as children of God. In this opinion editorial, it is going to make us of common good and human dignity to elaborate on how people should address the challenge of violation of right of health to human beings.

The meaning of human dignity from the Catholic Social teachings is that human beings possess the sense of dignity if they carry out themselves with integrity and respect to one another according Brady, (2017). In the context of denial of the right to well-being, the department of health and the entire government are missing the point of human dignity. Human being is a valued creature of God as they resemble the image of God. For people to see the essence of human dignity everyone should have the right to quality health care. Consider a situation where people are denied the right to health, they suffer and die anyhow.  It is against the principle of human dignity. The life of human being is from God in reference to Etzioni, (2014). The Almighty is the one who gives and takes the life of the individual. It should not be that people die because they are denied the access to the healthcare. Consequently, the government may have various reasons why they limit the right to healthcare. One of the reasons may be control the resources of the nation. However, it is not fair because many people are suffering. To restore the spirit of human dignity, there are several things that as a nurse I see them helpful in this context. One of the solutions is to bring universal healthcare according to Nishino, (2017). Everyone can have an insurance card that at any time they feel unwell they can approach any health center and get treatment. The second issue is passing a law that approves universal health care to everyone no matter where they come from in the country. All these factors will restore human dignity and make many to see the life of human being treated with respect.

On the other hand, the Catholic Social Thought explains the common good as something that help all members in the society according to Melé, (2016). When one considers the issue of restricting access to health, there are some people who are able to access quality health from other parts of the nation or outside the country. These are leaders who take their family for treatment outside the country. However, this is against the principle of the common good. With common good, the institution of the activity should benefit everybody in the community. When there is restriction on healthcare services rich families go and afford services from other places leaving the less fortunate suffering. The best thing to do in order to achieve the principle of common good is that the leaders should join hands with the citizens to fight on the suspension of the restriction to healthcare services. Consequently, as a nurse in future, I can use my skills to offer free services to some individual. By offering such services everybody would have benefitted and thus what common good principle requires from everyone. Besides that, hospitality, it is also important to spread the gospel to other colleagues to reach more people who cannot access health services as this would promote the spirit of common good.

Everybody who call himself or herself as a Christian should maintain the Principles of Catholic Teachings. The principle of human dignity and common good applies to every individual. It is very painful when one has the skills and the capability of offering services to others but leave them because there is restriction on how to give others services. Restricting the access to health care is against God’s teachings and everyone should try to teach others on what human dignity and common good requires as illustrated above.

References

Brady, B. V. (2017). Essential Catholic Social Thought 2nd edition. Orbis Books.

Etzioni, A. (2014). Common good. The encyclopedia of political thought, 603-610.

Melé, D. (2016). Virtues, values, and principles in Catholic social teaching. Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management, 1-12.

Nishino, M. (2017). Some Reflections on Human Dignity and Human Life. ARCHIV FUR RECHTS-UND SOZIALPHILOSOPHIE, 103(3), 304-321.