Sridhar Venkatapuram argues that every human being has a human right to the capability to be healthy. In this talk, he takes us through the first principles required for health to be a human right: a shift to thinking about health as a capability and a recognition that health and health inequalities are questions of social justice.

Sridhar Venkatapuram has been at the forefront of health ethics and global health for over twenty years. His research and expertise is in global/public health, social epidemiology, human rights, ethics and philosophy. He aims to bridge normative reasoning, particularly about social justice, with relevant natural and social sciences related to human health. He has academic training in a range of disciplines including international relations, public health, sociology and political philosophy. His doctoral dissertation making the argument for a moral/human right to ‘the capability to be healthy’ was supervised by Melissa Lane, and examined and passed without corrections by Amartya Sen, Nobel prize winning economist and philosopher. It formed the basis of his first book titled Health Justice: An argument from the capabilities approach which has been described as a landmark achievement. He is currently writing a book on the modern history and current issues of global health ethics.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx