Public Health and Human Rights: Does the theory fit?

Public health is in need of new theory that incorporates determinants of population health and informs public health actions and policy (Krieger, 1996; McKinlay, 2000; Susser, 1998). Jonathon Mann, before his death in 1998, was the foremost proponent for applying a theoretical framework of human rights to public health. Application of international human rights domestically, however, is not simple or direct nor necessarily the best solution to the public health theory vacuum in the United States. Defining health as a human right is problematic. Civil rights appear to have salutary mortality effects in the U.S. And domestic law and particular forms of governance show relationships to population health that are directly relevant to public health systems. Given this, revitalization of Beauchamp (1988), Bellah (1985)and Wallack's “second language of public health” (2005, p. 567) and a theory of social justice as espoused by Hofrichter (2003) and Beauchamp (1999) might serve as more accessible theory of public health than Mann's human rights and health.