Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “President
Calls for Final Vote on Health Bill” (front page, March 4):

Health care is a basic right. Our current system is convoluted and
unethical and should go the way of gladiator games.

We can spar and battle in the free market in many arenas, but when we
get sick we should all have care—not just the lawyers, bankers,
politicians and others who can afford it.

Those who disagree should consider what they would do if they or
their loved ones got sick and somehow couldn’t find a way to pay for
care.

We like the free market, but we shouldn’t let people die in the
street—not in this country. At least, that’s how I think it ought to
be.

I say we can afford to take a small, overdue step in the direction of
decency. Count me with President Obama and the House speaker, Nancy
Pelosi.

Lucius Schoenbaum
Baton Rouge, La., March 4, 2010

Note from KBJ: The letter writer says that health care is a basic right. What sort of right? If he's talking about a legal right, then what he says is false. There's no legal right to health care. If he's talking about a moral right, then he owes us an argument to that effect. Saying that there is a right to X doesn't make it the case that there is a right to X.