Few topics in human rights have inspired as much debate as the right to health. Proponents would enshrine it as a fundamental right on a par with freedom of speech and freedom from torture. Detractors suggest that the movement constitutes an impractical over-reach. Jonathan Wolff cuts through the ideological stalemate to explore both views. In an accessible, persuasive voice, he explores the philosophical underpinnings of the idea of a human right, assesses whether health meets those criteria, and identifies the political and cultural realities we face in attempts to improve the health of citizens in wildly different regions. Wolff ultimately finds that there is a path forward for proponents of the right to health, but to succeed they must embrace certain intellectual and practical changes. The Human Right to Health is a powerful and important contribution to the discourse on global health.

Jonathan Wolff is the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. His books include Robert Nozick: Property, Justice, and the Minimal State (1991), An Introduction to Political Philosophy (1996, 3rd ed. 2016), Why Read Marx Today? (2002), Disadvantage (with Avner de-Shalit) (2007), Ethics and Public Policy (2011, 2nd ed. 2020), and The Human Right to Health (2012). He has been a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and has worked on questions of the ethics of risk and the valuation of life and health with the railway and pharmaceutical industries in the UK, as well as the government. He writes a regular column for the Guardian newspaper.