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Health Care for Undocumented Immigrants and Their Children in the United States: an Ethical Dilemma
Anstett, Raissa
Anstett, Raissa
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Thesis/Dissertation
Date
2020
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Urban Bioethics
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http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/2539
Abstract
Undocumented immigrants in the United States currently do not have the same access to health care as their legal and citizen counterparts. This is wrong, and both state and national governments bear responsibility in remedying this situation by expanding policies to include them to protect their rights, especially undocumented immigrant children as a special vulnerable population. In order to demonstrate this, I will discuss the historical barriers that immigrants have encountered when trying to access to health care. I will review the laws and policies that have excluded them from welfare programs and inflicted fear into discouraging them from using what is available. I will examine the ways in which children have been treated at the Southern border detention centers and show evidence that they have been historically abused and traumatized at these facilities while the government continues to promote discrimination, injustice, and hostility in the ways that immigrants are portrayed and treated. I will explore the ethical problems surrounding these issues by considering ideas of influential philosophers and bioethicists regarding health care as a right for all and question the philosophical basis for treating undocumented immigrants differently than the rest of the population. With the support of international law and bioethics I will argue that children are a vulnerable population that deserves special protection regardless of immigration laws. Finally, I will discuss the importance of intervening in this situation and describe ways in which the government, health care providers, and the general population can all contribute to promoting equality for all.
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