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

Civil and political rights are critical, but not often the real problem for the destitute sick. My patients in Haiti can now vote but they can't get medical care or clean water.

I think that looking forward it's easy to imagine more constructive help for Haiti.

But as for activism, my parents did what they could, given the constraints, but were never involved in the causes I think of when I think of activists.

I would say that, intellectually, Catholicism had no more impact on me than did social theory.

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.

Again, conventional Catholicism does not much appeal to me.