Quote

The essence of global health equity is the idea that something so precious as health might be viewed as a right.

Paul Farmer

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Paul Farmer
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: October 26
Anthropologist
Human Rights Activist
Medical Anthropologist
Physician
North Adams
Massachusetts
Global
Essence
Health
Idea
Ideas
Might
Viewed
Right
Equity
Something
Precious

More quotes by Paul Farmer

Image
The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, when you do, to send money
Paul Farmer
Image
Ebola has not yet come into contact with modern medicine in West Africa. But when protocols for the provision of high quality supportive care are followed, the case fatality rate for Ebola may be lower than 20 percent.
Paul Farmer
Image
The poorest parts of the world are by and large the places in which one can best view the worst of medicine and not because doctors in these countries have different ideas about what constitutes modern medicine. It's the system and its limitations that are to blame.
Paul Farmer
Image
The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.
Paul Farmer
Image
You can't have public health without a public health system. We just don't want to be part of a mindless competition for resources. We want to build back capacity in the system.
Paul Farmer
Image
The biggest public health challenge is rebuilding health systems. In other words, if you look at cholera or maternal mortality or tuberculosis in Haiti, they're major problems in Haiti, but the biggest problem is rebuilding systems.
Paul Farmer
Image
God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. You want to see where Christ crucified abides today? Go to where the poor are suffering and fighting back, and that's where He is.
Paul Farmer
Image
For me, an area of moral clarity is: you're in front of someone who's suffering and you have the tools at your disposal to alleviate that suffering or even eradicate it, and you act.
Paul Farmer
Image
The thing about rights is that in the end you can't prove what should be considered a right.
Paul Farmer
Image
People call me a saint and I think, I have to work harder. Because a saint would be a great thing to be.
Paul Farmer
Image
I've been asked a lot for my view on American health care. Well, 'it would be a good idea,' to quote Gandhi.
Paul Farmer
Image
I've been impressed, over the last 15 years, with how often the somewhat conspiratorial comments of Haitian villagers have been proven to be correct when the historical record is probed carefully.
Paul Farmer
Image
The idea that because you're born in Haiti you could die having a child. The idea that because you're born in you know Malawi your children may go to bed hungry. We want to take some of the chance out of that.
Paul Farmer
Image
If I am hungry, that is a material problem if someone else is hungry, that is a spiritual problem.
Paul Farmer
Image
Everybody should be interested in access to primary and secondary education for everybody.
Paul Farmer
Image
With rare exceptions, all of your most important achievements on this planet will come from working with others- or, in a word, partnership.
Paul Farmer
Image
Equity is the only acceptable goal
Paul Farmer
Image
At the same time, it is obvious that clinicians in Haiti are faced with different, and, in fact, greater, challenges when attempting to treat complications of HIV disease.
Paul Farmer
Image
It is clear that the pharmaceutical industry is not, by any stretch of the imagination, doing enough to ensure that the poor have access to adequate medical care.
Paul Farmer
Image
I'm one of six kids, and the eight of us lived for over a decade in either a bus or a boat.
Paul Farmer