QUORA: ‘Right’ to Healthcare vs. the Sixth Amendment Right to Legal Counsel

QUORA: ‘Many people have said that health care is not a right because you do not have the right to someone else's labor. However, the sixth amendment gives you the right to legal counsel, how are these different?’

I posted this answer:

The Sixth Amendment reads:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

When people claim health care is a “right,” they usually mean a “right” to health care whether you can pay for it or not, in which case others must be forced to provide it. You obviously have a right to health care that you buy from willing providers, or access in other ways based on voluntary consent, such as voluntary charity. It is in this second sense that the Sixth Amendment recognizes the accused's’ right to be represented by counsel. It clearly does not recognize any right to compel others to provide that counsel.

It’s true that today taxpayers and/or lawyers are forced to provide counsel to people who cannot afford it. It’s arguable whether this should be so. But providing counsel to an accused is not analogous to providing goods or services like health care at others’ expense. Given that criminal prosecution is a legitimate governmental function that proceeds from the proper purpose of government, which is to secure the inalienable individual rights of its citizens, it’s hard to see how the government can fulfill its obligation to provide a fair trial to a defendant who is not represented by counsel.

The fact is that the power to forcibly redistribute wealth from one private person to another is not among the enumerated powers constitutionally granted to the government. Then Illinois state senator and Constitutional scholar Barack Obama acknowledged this fact, though he considered it to be a flaw rather than one of the Founding Fathers’ great achievements, the constitutional protection of private property rights. The Sixth Amendment “right to legal counsel” and the “right to health care” as it is commonly meant are not the same thing. The first relates to the prosecutorial function, mandated by the constitution. The second relates to redistribution of wealth, which is not constitutionally authorized.

Related Reading:

Health Care is Not a Right--Leonard Peikoff