The Maturing Right to Health: Deeper, Broader and More Complex but Still Unequal

MacNaughton expresses insights about the right to health. Looking back over the past 25 years, the right to health has matured in healthy ways. It is deeper, broader and considerably more complex. From a narrow focus on freedoms, such as nondiscrimination and privacy, the right to health has grown to encompass a broad range of entitlements, including universal health care and the underlying or social determinants of health. From a siloed right of interest to a few lawyers, the right to health has come to be understood as requiring an interdisciplinary approach, involving experts in many disciplines- most notably health professionals to fully realize the right for all.