:Vocalo.org

Once upon a time, if you wanted to see a really good knock-down-go-see-your-dentist-in-the-morning kinda' fight you had to drop 39.99¢ on Pay-Per-View -- but those days are no more. Who needs to pay for a good old ghetto brawl when you can watch the blows fly "Live from [your town here] Town Hall" on the nightly news - for free? In case you haven't yet had your double latte - I'm referring to the health care reform debate (read: debacle). From the angry dad of an adult invalid to the newly unemployed mother of two- many Americans are concerned and vocally charged about the future of health care in America.

This complicated and sometimes contentious debate breeds players on both sides who are from downright passionate to grossly misinformed. But regardless of whether you or I have, need or even want health care insurance this issue touches every American by various degrees of separation - and the circle is tightening.

Talking points and debunked myths aside the question that is now bubbling just below the surface is whether or not access to quality health care is a basic civil, (if not human) right.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, proclaimed that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of oneself and one’s family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care.”

The US has encouraged the adoption of this declaration on the part of the UN but does/should this declaration, intended for the world, apply to the US health care system?

Unlike a significant portion of the rest of the world Americans enjoy many rights i.e. freedom of speech, unrestricted access to education and the right of assembly, among others. The Civil Rights movement of the 60's was the catalyst that brought about innumerable measures protecting against racial inequality. Today, as the health care reform debate matures, some supporters maintain that health care is not only a basic human right but should be recognized and subsequently protected as a civil right. Dissidents insist that the right to taxpayer-funded organ transplantation, cosmetic surgery or infertility treatment is not the same as provisions of clean water and adequate food. (Here comes the bell...)

Should health care be a civil right? What do YOU think?

(Let's have a clean fight)...Ding.....               B.C.