The Right to Life and the Right to Health: Any Nexus?

The current trend is that all human rights are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights and the environmental rights are all interdependent upon one another and none of these rights is superior or inferior to the other. However in most nations, civil and political rights are justiciable, while the economic, social and cultural rights which are termed “progressive in nature” are non-justiciable Whereas, all nations’ municipal laws recognize the right to life as a fundamental human right, the right to health is not so recognized by most nations. In recent times, the rampant incidents of foods and drugs contamination leading to death of citizens of such nations have led to an outcry for the justiciability of the ESC rights. One wonders, of what essence is the right to life when the citizens’ right to good health through food and drugs remain unguaranteed? This paper examines the nature of ESC rights. It focuses on the right to health and its direct incidence or impact on the right to life. The paper demonstrates that food and drug contaminations leading to the death of persons proves that the right to health is not inferior to the right to life and thus ought to be made justiciable.