Access to healthcare: bioethical discourses from North and South

Abstract

Comparative study, with a hermeneutical approach, adopting the bibliographic research technique, through identification and reading of reference works by renowned authors of bioethics, with the aim of analyzing bioethical discourses on the subject of access to healthcare in the United States and Brazil. We identify that the emphasis of American discourses is on the acquisition of health goods and services and on strategies to guarantee access to health insurance, which is seen as a commodity. On the contrary, Brazilian discourses focus on defending the right and universal access to health, which is seen as a social value, a fundamental human right. The authors conclude that bioethical discourses on access to health embody different ethical-political perspectives. In this sense, health policies may or may not promote human rights, including the right to healthcare, depending on how they are conceived or executed.