Rights People have a right to health and health care. Balance Care of individual patients is central, but the health of populations is also our concern. In addition to treating illness, we have an obligation to ease suffering, minimize disability, prevent disease, and promote health. Cooperation Health care succeeds only if we cooperate with those we serve, each other, and those in other sectors. Improvement Improving health care is a serious and continuing responsibility.
Safety Do no harm.
The organizers of the Tavistock group invited a diverse group of about 150 people representing medicine, nursing, health policy, hospitals, industry, labor unions, and other groups to meet in April 2000 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to find out. Amartya Sen, a recent Nobel laureate in economics, began with an in-depth exploration of health and human rights. The dialogue was intense and wide-ranging, in panels, in small groups, and in the group as a whole. Peoples' eyes often glaze over at meetings on ethical principles, but no one was bored at this one. A few key points made by the participants are summarized here.