The Right to Healthcare

23 million Taiwanese people are totally isolated from free access to healthcare, by exclusion from WHO, through non-humanitarian grounds. The only reasons that exist for this situation are based solely on trivial border disputes, and political games. All the world¡¦s governments are critically aware of this, but decide to turn a blind eye, in favour of economic and political gain. However denial of healthcare access has had and will continue to have disastrous consequences, which not only affect Taiwan but all countries similarly. All governments are well aware of this very real threat to their people, to their countries, however still nothing is done. There is only one reason as to why the majority of the world¡¦s governments act this way, and that is the economic and political game involving China, which is discussed later on. The issue of healthcare is so central to all humans that it should not be misused in the current way as a political playing card. Therefore as fellow humans, we should rise above such trivial child¡¦s play, to embrace an upmost respect for human rights; to allow free access to the highest attainable level or standard of healthcare, by allowing Taiwan to join the World Health Organisation.

An organisation¡¦s constitution is the basis upon which it is constructed, and compromise of its own constitution undermines the entire organisation, its members, its goals and its aims. Keeping that in mind, one of the first basic principles in the WHO¡¦s constitution reads ¡§The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.¡¨ Despite this statement, the 23 million people of Taiwan are unable to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health, because they have no access to the WHO As a result, Taiwan must solely rely upon publicly released information from the organisation, which is often not timely enough to help prevent, or lessen the extent of damaging effects of an epidemic. This situation directly show¡¦s the WHO¡¦s compromise of its own constitution, and because of this the world¡¦s largest health organisation is unable to efficiently carry out its goals of health. This means the WHO is unable to contain and control epidemics, unable to eradicate diseases efficiently. As a result everybody must suffer the consequences. These consequences include the SARS epidemic, avian flu, and enterovirus outbreak to name just a few. The death tolls arising from these few outbreaks speak for themselves.

Taiwan has been barred from participation in the WHO, by Beijing¡¦s demands. As a result Taiwanese medical authorities are unable to obtain critical information required to fight the spread of infectious diseases. This means that Taiwan is constantly one step behind in implementing control measures to help prevent the spread of diseases. Speed is of the essence when fighting the spread of infectious diseases, and the longer they are left uncontrolled, the more devastating the effects. Furthermore, since Taiwan is excluded from the WHO, the 23 million citizens are ineligible for assistance.

Some saddening effects of this exclusion are seen in the 1998 incident where a strain of enterovirus spread from Malaysia to Taiwan, resulting in the deaths of more than 80 Taiwanese children. Though help eventually did come from the US, others not willing to help in order to prevent angering Beijing, it was too slow, and unfortunately more than 80 innocent children had to pay the price. This situation was a direct result of being excluded from the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, a side network of WHO.

In 1999, central Taiwan was rocked by a massive earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale. Thousands lost their lives in that disaster, and such a devastating loss of life could have been prevented had valuable time not been lost, while the WHO tried to figure out how to assist indirectly, to avoid angering Beijing, which unreasonably demanded no help be sent. Had Taiwan had access to the WHO, assistance would have been sent, and this incident could not possibly have resulted in such a great and devastating loss of life.

Recently in 2003, the SARS epidemic which had been slowly festering away in China for about half a year finally spread to Taiwan. Taiwan health officials immediately reported the outbreak to the WHO, and again a disappointing response resulted, where no assistance was given for two months, by which time many lives had already been claimed. Once more Beijing had demanded no assistance be sent, and the result became much worse than it could have been, had timely assistance been sent. Numerous similar incidents have occurred and will continue to eventuate due to Taiwan¡¦s exclusion from the WHO. While the current injustices continue to take their present form, all 23 million innocent Taiwanese people can do is hope that they will not become just another statistic.

23 million should not be ignored from the health perspective, but let¡¦s put that aside for the moment and consider Taiwan¡¦s present situation. Taiwan over the last two decades has become an economic powerhouse, and is now one of the world¡¦s largest traders, significantly ahead of Australia in both exporting and importing, according to the World Trade Organisation¡¦s overview. As a result about four million foreigners visit Taiwan annually, with more than double that number in outbound travellers. Applying this to the spread of infectious diseases, this translates to about 8 million possible carriers to aid in the globalisation of diseases. An outbreak in any one country is potentially a threat to the whole world, and according to studies, a virus originating in Southern China could spread to Taiwan then to America in less than 24 hours. Taiwan as a major transportation and trading hub linking Northeast and Southeast Asia presents a loophole in any worldwide efforts to prevent epidemics.

This comes back to the point of why Taiwan¡¦s 23 million people do not have access to or representation in the WHO. The story starts in the early 1949 when China was undergoing its cultural revolution. The Communists had won and the Chinese Government fled to Taiwan. On February 28^th, now called the KuoMinTang they started to enforce martial law, killing all people who opposed them, which lasted for about 50 years. At that point in time they had the support of the international community and held onto the Chinese seat in the UN. However in 1971 they withdrew, and by the early 1980s Taiwan had been expelled from most important international organisations. Since then Taiwan¡¦s population has been unrepresented. However according to UN scripture Taiwan is represented by China, which is equally as strange if not more, since the Chinese government has no authority over any happenings in Taiwan and never has. Taiwan and China could be no more different than any other two countries in the world, if not more. Taiwan is a democratically run, peace loving nation, whereas China is a communist regime, which points more than 600 missiles threateningly across the Taiwan Strait.

Although Taiwan is an independent country, and always has been, Taiwan has demonstrated a willingness to avoid such political issues, when seeking access to the WHO. The only reason for this is need, and for the better health of 23 million Taiwanese people, such trivial issues can and must be set aside. Since the earthquake in 1999, where thousands died Taiwan has actively sought access to the WHO as an ¡§observer¡¨, willing to sidestep the political issues, by applying as a ¡§health entity¡¨. Such health entities include the Holy See(Vatican), International Committee of the Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to name a few who all enjoy observer status.

Diseases are common enemy of all humans; they kill friend or foe, without regard for politics, border disputes or economic gain. Is this not the reason for one of W.H.O.¡¦s most famous principles: ¡§The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.¡¨? Another principle reads, ¡§Unequal development in different countries in the promotion of health and control of disease, especially communicable disease, is a common danger.¡¨ An ignoring of these two principles is exactly what is being illustrated in the current situation of Taiwan¡¦s exclusion from the World Health Organisation. The Taiwanese people can no longer be left isolated to tackle diseases than require global efforts by themselves. Such an act is as perilous as it is short-sighted, and can only bring more needless death and suffering. As fellow humans, who share a common peril we must work towards a Fair and Just World Health Organisation for all.