Toward a law of healthy peoples: From the Perspective of the Right to Health
global health, John Rawls, the right to health, The Law of Peoples
With the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the international community isforced to face the global health crisis again. Even though, throughout the course of history, the humanrace 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 someexciting plans, and it is undoubtedly regrettable that Rawls, one of the most outstanding contemporarypolitical philosophers and ethicists, has not addressed this issue in his The Law of Peoples. However, ifRawls 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 developRawls’ 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.
International Society of Philosophy and Cosmology