Toward a law of healthy peoples: From the Perspective of the Right to Health

Abstract

With the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the international community is forced to face the global health crisis again. Even though, throughout the course of history, the human race has seldom succeeded in getting rid of infectious diseases and global health inequalities completely. Faced with this tragic situation and extreme inequality, some philosophers have put forward some exciting plans, and it is undoubtedly regrettable that Rawls, one of the most outstanding contemporary political philosophers and ethicists, has not addressed this issue in his The Law of Peoples. However, if Rawls wants its philosophical blueprint for the future world – the law of peoples as a “realistic utopia” to be feasible, he has to face the challenges of global health and make a reasonable response. Otherwise, the magnificent building of this “realistic utopia” will collapse. Therefore, the author tries to develop Rawls’ international justice theory by introducing the idea of the right to health into the law of peoples, so as to hopefully provide a feasible philosophical plan to solve the global health problems.

Keywords

• global health
• john rawls
• the law of peoples
• the right to health