Health disparities are a human rights issue

Where can a line be drawn that determines what it means to health care providers in terms of ethics in modern society?  Savita Halappanavar was professional dentist, married to an engineer, and was happily expecting a child.  At 17 weeks along, while in Ireland, Savita started to miscarry her unborn child.  We have to keep in mind that Ireland is 80% Catholic and according to Catholic morals abortion is forbidden even if it means the mother’s life is being threatened.  Savita was denied the medical procedure she needed because the health care providers refused to go against their Catholic beliefs in order to save her life.  It does not take a doctor to know that even if Savita managed to deliver her unborn child, the child likely would not have survived at only 17 weeks.

The point I am attempting to make is that this situation with Savita is not a women’s rights issue, it is a human rights issue.  Transgender individuals suffer from health disparities all over the world.  People who do not fit into a numeral chart and may be considered obese is denied health care everyday.  Economic disparities in under developed countries is the cause of unnecessary deaths every day.  The people in rural areas living in poverty may not be able to get transportation to get to health care providers.  Refusal of care seems to be the norm to those who do not identify with the dominate religion, appropriate gender identification, or fits in within a privileged community.  The problem with this is that every person’s idea of normal is different and people who chose to complicate the heteronormative binary discourse may not have their health needs met.

We have to face the fact that all minorities are fighting the same fight and deserve equality in terms of access to health care.  Good health care is crucial to the human population and the right to decide who gets proper access only enforces the unspoken privilege enabling global oppression.  All minorities need to stand up together and challenge the unspoken privilege responsible for making people decide who gets what in terms of health care, and work toward exercising the dialogue needed to illustrate what adequate care looks like.

Speaking from experience the medical discourse of America and other countries needs a radical change to meet the demands of diverse populations no matter if they are black, white, Latino, or Asian.  It should not matter if the people in need are gay, straight, lesbian, or transgender.  Tell me how it is ethical to choose who gets care and who doesn’t when we live in a world with over 200 religious groups (and I have to say this is a rough number).  We all have a body, the body is our haven, what we live with, what we know, and unfortunately the way we are perceived by others and in there lies the commonality of health care disparity as we all know it.