Summarise:
It has been indicated that health care plays a lesser part in determining a person’s health. In this article I have argued that in the human rights discourse, the human right to health should be emphasised rather than simply the right to health care. This does not mean, however, that health care should not be included in this right, or that a government have any less of a duty to look after the health of its people. On the contrary, it is my opinion that by viewing the right to health as much more than merely the right to have access to health care services, a much more holistic view of human health care is at work, one that also puts emphasis on the numerous other features that contribute to health, for example sanitation, housing, diet, and so forth, and appeals to the responsibility of government to look after these basic human needs of those who cannot afford to do so themselves. In addition, by accentuating the larger issue of social justice and not simply the matter of access and availability that is directly related to HGE, this article also dealt with the much larger issue of socio-economic justice.This, of course, also has extensive and far-reaching implications for the larger discussion on HGE and the impact it would have on the current South African context, with its great and growing gap between rich and poor, or, in other words, between those who would be able to afford this technology, and those who would not have access, were HGE to become commercially available. This is not to say that this biotechnology should not be used for curing and treatment purposes, but rather stresses that social justice be underlined and emphasised in all ethical conversation about its applications.