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The Ethics Of Human Being As Such And The Social Benefits Of Caring For The Health Care

Decent Essays

The ethics of treating a human being as such and the social benefits of caring for the health needs of the imprisoned, alone, could be justified to encourage improvement of health care policy concerning prison health care. Nevertheless, there may be a need to consider the legality of inmate health care also. Some may reason by law, it would proper to divest inmates of all rights, including health care. According to the earlier positions, the courts held on inmates’ rights, this was the case. Prisoners did not have rights and considered, by some, slaves of the state. In 1871, the case of Ruffin v. Commonwealth illustrates this was the position taken by early courts and states that inmates have, “as a consequence of his crime, not only forfeited his liberty, but all his personal rights except those which the law in its humanity accords to him. He is for the time being the slave of the state" (Ruffin v. Commonwealth, 1871).However today, the courts do not seem to take the same stance on inmates’ rights as earlier courts, including those of health care. Examination of the law and court rulings can reveal that prisoners ostensibly do have rights, such as health care, and that we as citizens seem to be obligated ethically and socially to uphold such rights. To establish the health care rights of prisoners, consideration of three laws may be essential, the Civil Rights Act of 1871, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Eight Amendment to the Constitution. The

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