Topic > Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder - 1957

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder“The only true nation is humanity” (Farmer 123). This quote represents a huge message that is received in Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. This book argues that universal healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Kidder's book also shows the public that every individual, regardless of circumstances, has the right to receive quality healthcare. In the book Kidder represents Paul Farmer, a man who spends his entire life determined to improve healthcare in poor areas around the world, namely Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. In this way the public learns about the horrific circumstances and lack of quality healthcare that nations like Haiti live with every day, why every person has the right to healthcare no matter what, and how the cost-effectiveness it should not determine whether or not these people get to live or die. Two texts that support this idea are “Ensuring Healthcare as a Global Human Right” by Monte Leach and “It Pays to Treat the World's Poor” by Darshak Sanghavi. Leach's article is an interview with Benjamin Crème that illustrates why food, housing, education and healthcare are human rights that must be available to all. He shares many of the same views as Farmer on health care, and the two also share similar solutions to this ongoing problem. Leach also talks about the rapidly growing AIDS epidemic and how it needs to be stopped. Like a farmer, he also claims that it is easier to prevent these diseases than to cure them. Furthermore, Sanghavi's article represents many of the questions people would ask about cost effectiveness. However, similar to Farmer's view, Sanghavi argues that letting the poor be left at the center of the paper and just like Kidder argues that this in no way justifies letting the poor die. This type of work is about improving the quality of healthcare in these extremely poor nations. This topic is represented in Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, “Ensuring Healthcare as a Global Human Right” by Monte Leach, and “It Pays to Treat the World's Poor” by Darshark Sanghavi. The idea that universal healthcare is a human right is challenged in the book "A “Right” to Health Care?” by Michael F. Cannon. Cannon argues that it wouldn't work and fills in the holes that other authors leave in their arguments. All of these articles share the same end goal, which is to provide every individual with adequate healthcare and not let so many people die from things that could have easily been prevented or cured..