Highest attainable standard of health is a human right

doi:10.1136/bmj.39199.468287.3A

BMJ 2007;334:917 (5 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39199.468287.3A

Letters

Asylum seekers

Highest attainable standard of health is a human right

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Since my editorial explaining how the denial of failed asylumseekers' access to free hospital care violates their fundamentalhuman rights was published, there has been a deafening silencefrom the BMA.¹ Yet the BMA has a proud record of promoting humanrights—its website claims that "Action by medical associations... to ensure that resources [reach] the most vulnerable populations,have played an important role in supporting the realisationof the right to health."² Not for over 400 000 failed asylumseekers living in the UK, it hasn't.

In contrast, the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rightsrecently recommended that free secondary health care be provided"to comply with the laws of common humanity and the UK's internationalhuman rights obligations," and an innovative Department of Healthpolicy document that requires health professionals to respecthuman rights acknowledges the government's responsibility tocomply with international treaties.³ ⁴ The BMA's reticence,given . . . [Full text of this article]