Tom Murray, president of The Hastings Center, discussed how and why health reform should reflect our values in an interview on NPR’s Science Friday.

While many speak of healthcare as an individual “right,” I prefer to think of universal coverage as something that we, as a civilized nation, desire for all members of our society because we recognize each other as equally human, vulnerable, and in need of care.

As a society, we have a moral obligation to provide access to medical care for all of our citizens. When we frame healthcare as a “right,” we shift responsibility from society to the individual. It is up to him to demand his due. At that point, the word “entitlement” comes to mind, along with the conservative image (so artfully drawn by President Reagan), of an aggrieved, resentful mob of freeloaders dunning the rest of us for having the simple good luck of being relatively healthy and relatively wealthy…

I’m going to do something “radical” here in the spirit of Dr. Sabin’s opening quote – and speak from my gut on the topic of responsibility.

In my opinion, it’s human nature to shirk responsibility, and our current society is a great facilitator of that natural urge. The more wealthy and technologically comfortable we become, the fewer responsibilities we have (in terms of securing basic needs), and the more empowered we are to indulge our inner narcissism. Until we accept that we all have this selfish tendency, we’ll continue to point at others and engage in a blame game that keeps us all very much in the dark about what’s really going on….

We in the United States are deeply committed to “responsibility” as a core American value. Being responsible and taking responsibility are good. Being irresponsible is bad. But “responsibility” means very different things to different people. As a result, calling for “responsibility” in U.S. public discourse is like waving a red flag at a convention of bulls — it elicits passion, rancor, and disorderly conflict…

The atmosphere was tense. Representatives of the insurance industry were huddled in one corner. The other members of the Task Force on Genetic Information and Insurance, mostly academics and consumer representatives, were bunched across the room. As chair of the task force, I was in the middle, trying to make sense of the disagreement, which was growing more intense by the minute.