What are some of the main problems with the US Healthcare system?

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Human Dignity

I. Respect For the Human Person

1929 Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man. the

person represents the ultimate end of society, which is ordered to him:

What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have

been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of

history are strictly and responsibly in debt.35

1930 Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a

creature. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it. They are the basis of the

moral legitimacy of every authority: by flouting them, or refusing to recognize them in its

positive legislation, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy.36 If it does not respect them,

authority can rely only on force or violence to obtain obedience from its subjects. It is the

Church's role to remind men of good will of these rights and to distinguish them from

unwarranted or false claims.

1931 Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that "everyone

should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as 'another self,' above all bearing in

mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity."37 No legislation could by itself

do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the

establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that

finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.

1932 The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even

more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged, in whatever area this may be. "As you did it to

one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."38

1933 This same duty extends to those who think or act differently from us. the teaching of Christ

goes so far as to require the forgiveness of offenses. He extends the commandment of love,

which is that of the New Law, to all enemies.39 Liberation in the spirit of the Gospel is

incompatible with hatred of one's enemy as a person, but not with hatred of the evil that he does

as an enemy.

Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church, http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6O.HTM

The Common Good

II. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE COMMON GOOD

a. Meaning and primary implications

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164. The principle of the common good, to which every aspect of social life must be related if it

is to attain its fullest meaning, stems from the dignity, unity and equality of all people. According

to its primary and broadly accepted sense, the common good indicates “the sum total of social

conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more

fully and more easily”.[346]

The common good does not consist in the simple sum of the particular goods of each subject of a

social entity. Belonging to everyone and to each person, it is and remains “common”, because it

is indivisible and because only together is it possible to attain it, increase it and safeguard its

effectiveness, with regard also to the future. Just as the moral actions of an individual are

accomplished in doing what is good, so too the actions of a society attain their full stature when

they bring about the common good. The common good, in fact, can be understood as the social

and community dimension of the moral good.

165. A society that wishes and intends to remain at the service of the human being at every level

is a society that has the common good — the good of all people and of the whole person [347] —

as its primary goal. The human person cannot find fulfilment in himself, that is, apart from the

fact that he exists “with” others and “for” others. This truth does not simply require that he live

with others at various levels of social life, but that he seek unceasingly — in actual practice and

not merely at the level of ideas — the good, that is, the meaning and truth, found in existing

forms of social life. No expression of social life — from the family to intermediate social groups,

associations, enterprises of an economic nature, cities, regions, States, up to the community of

peoples and nations — can escape the issue of its own common good, in that this is a constitutive

element of its significance and the authentic reason for its very existence[348].

b. Responsibility of everyone for the common good

166. The demands of the common good are dependent on the social conditions of each historical

period and are strictly connected to respect for and the integral promotion of the person and his

fundamental rights[349]. These demands concern above all the commitment to peace, the

organization of the State's powers, a sound juridical system, the protection of the environment,

and the provision of essential services to all, some of which are at the same time human rights:

food, housing, work, education and access to culture, transportation, basic health care, the

freedom of communication and expression, and the protection of religious freedom[350]. Nor

must one forget the contribution that every nation is required in duty to make towards a true

worldwide cooperation for the common good of the whole of humanity and for future

generations also[351].

167. The common good therefore involves all members of society, no one is exempt from

cooperating, according to each one's possibilities, in attaining it and developing it[352]. The

common good must be served in its fullness, not according to reductionist visions that are

subordinated by certain people to their advantages; own rather it is to be based on a logic that

leads to the assumption of greater responsibility. The common good corresponds to the highest

of human instincts[353], but it is a good that is very difficult to attain because it requires the

constant ability and effort to seek the good of others as though it were one's own good.

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Everyone also has the right to enjoy the conditions of social life that are brought about by the

quest for the common good. The teaching of Pope Pius XI is still relevant: “the distribution of

created goods, which, as every discerning person knows, is labouring today under the gravest

evils due to the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the unnumbered

propertyless, must be effectively called back to and brought into conformity with the norms of

the common good, that is, social justice”[354].

c. Tasks of the political community

168. The responsibility for attaining the common good, besides falling to individual persons,

belongs also to the State, since the common good is the reason that the political authority

exists[355]. The State, in fact, must guarantee the coherency, unity and organization of the civil

society of which it is an expression[356], in order that the common good may be attained with

the contribution of every citizen. The individual person, the family or intermediate groups are not

able to achieve their full development by themselves for living a truly human life. Hence the

necessity of political institutions, the purpose of which is to make available to persons the

necessary material, cultural, moral and spiritual goods. The goal of life in society is in fact the

historically attainable common good[357].

169. To ensure the common good, the government of each country has the specific duty to

harmonize the different sectoral interests with the requirements of justice[358]. The proper

reconciling of the particular goods of groups and those of individuals is, in fact, one of the most

delicate tasks of public authority. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that in the democratic State,

where decisions are usually made by the majority of representatives elected by the people, those

responsible for government are required to interpret the common good of their country not only

according to the guidelines of the majority but also according to the effective good of all the

members of the community, including the minority.

170. The common good of society is not an end in itself; it has value only in reference to

attaining the ultimate ends of the person and the universal common good of the whole of

creation. God is the ultimate end of his creatures and for no reason may the common good be

deprived of its transcendent dimension, which moves beyond the historical dimension while at

the same time fulfilling it[359]. This perspective reaches its fullness by virtue of faith in Jesus'

Passover, which sheds clear light on the attainment of humanity's true common good. Our

history — the personal and collective effort to elevate the human condition — begins and ends in

Jesus: thanks to him, by means of him and in light of him every reality, including human society,

can be brought to its Supreme Good, to its fulfilment. A purely historical and materialistic vision

would end up transforming the common good into a simple socio-economic well-being, without

any transcendental goal, that is, without its most intimate reason for existing.

Source: The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church,

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20

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