Editing Surgery (section)

==Human rights==

Access to surgical care is increasingly recognized as an integral aspect of healthcare and therefore is evolving into a normative derivation of human [[right to health]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marks |first1=S |title=Normative Expansion of the Right to Health and the Proliferation of Human Rights |journal=George Washington International Law Review |date=2016 |pages=101–44}}</ref> The [[ICESCR]] Article 12.1 and 12.2 define the human [[right to health]] as "the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health"<ref>UN General Assembly. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – United Nations Treaty Series. In: Nations U, editor. 1966</ref> In the August 2000, the UN [[Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights]] (CESCR) interpreted this to mean "right to the enjoyment of a variety of facilities, goods, services, and conditions necessary for the realization of the highest attainable health".<ref name="Comment No. 14">UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. CESCR General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12) 2000</ref> Surgical care can be thereby viewed as a positive right – an entitlement to protective healthcare.<ref name="Comment No. 14"/>

Woven through the International Human and Health Rights literature is the right to be free from surgical disease. The 1966 ICESCR Article 12.2a described the need for "provision for the reduction of the stillbirth-rate and of infant mortality and for the healthy development of the child"<ref>UN General Assembly. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – United Nations Treaty Series. In: Nations U, editor. 1966.</ref> which was subsequently interpreted to mean "requiring measures to improve… emergency obstetric services".<ref name="Comment No. 14"/> Article 12.2d of the ICESCR stipulates the need for "the creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness",<ref>2. UN General Assembly. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – United Nations Treaty Series. In: Nations U, editor. 1966.</ref> and is interpreted in the 2000 comment to include timely access to "basic preventative, curative services… for appropriate treatment of [[injury]] and [[disability]].".<ref name="Cultural Rights 2000">UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. CESCR General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12) 2000.</ref> Obstetric care shares close ties with [[reproductive rights]], which includes access to reproductive health.<ref name="Cultural Rights 2000"/>

Surgeons and [[public health]] advocates, such as [[Kelly McQueen]], have described surgery as "Integral to the [[right to health]]".<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = McQueen KA, Ozgediz D, Riviello R, Hsia RY, Jayaraman S, Sullivan SR, Meara JG | title = Essential surgery: Integral to the right to health | journal = Health and Human Rights | volume = 12 | issue = 1 | pages = 137–152 | date = June 2010 | pmid = 20930260 }}</ref> This is reflected in the establishment of the WHO [[Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care]] in 2005,<ref>World Health Organization. Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care 2017 [cited 2017 October 23rd]. Available from: {{cite web |url=https://www.who.int/surgery/globalinitiative/en/ |title=WHO Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care |access-date=9 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325203523/http://www.who.int/surgery/globalinitiative/en/ |archive-date=25 March 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> the 2013 formation of the Lancet Commission for Global Surgery,<ref name="auto">{{cite journal | vauthors = Meara JG, Leather AJ, Hagander L, Alkire BC, Alonso N, Ameh EA, Bickler SW, Conteh L, Dare AJ, Davies J, Mérisier ED, El-Halabi S, Farmer PE, Gawande A, Gillies R, Greenberg SL, Grimes CE, Gruen RL, Ismail EA, Kamara TB, Lavy C, Lundeg G, Mkandawire NC, Raykar NP, Riesel JN, Rodas E, Rose J, Roy N, Shrime MG, Sullivan R, Verguet S, Watters D, Weiser TG, Wilson IH, Yamey G, Yip W | title = Global Surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development | journal = International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia | volume = 25 | pages = 75–78 | date = February 2016 | pmid = 26597405 | doi = 10.1016/j.ijoa.2015.09.006 }}</ref> the 2015 [[World Bank]] Publication of Volume 1 of its [[Disease Control Priorities Project]] "Essential Surgery",<ref name=":1">Debas HT, Donker P, Gawande A, Jamison DT, Kruk ME, Mock CN, editors. Essential Surgery. Disease Control Priorities. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / World Bank Group; 2015</ref> and the 2015 [[World Health Assembly]] 68.15 passing of the Resolution for Strengthening Emergency and Essential Surgical Care and [[Anesthesia]] as a Component of [[Universal Health Coverage]].<ref name="World Health Assembly Resolution WH"/> The Lancet Commission for Global Surgery outlined the need for access to "available, affordable, timely and safe" surgical and anesthesia care;<ref name="auto"/> dimensions paralleled in [[ICESCR]] General Comment No. 14, which similarly outlines need for available, accessible, affordable and timely healthcare.<ref name="Comment No. 14"/>