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Rethinking Health and Human Rights: Time for a Paradigm Shift

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

Medicine and its allied health sciences have for too long been peripherally involved in work on human rights. Fifty years ago, the door to greater involvement was opened by Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which underlined social and economic rights: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

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Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2002

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