[Hank Kerchief]

...then you deny rights to infants after birth and anyone who is delirious and all the ranges of permanent and temporary mental impairment, such as stroke victims and some of those Parkinson's patients we keep hearing about.

That's right. There is no such thing as a "right to have," or a right that makes a claim on anyone else's life. Rights pertain only to choice. There is only a right to do, and then, only if what you do does not threaten or use force against any other individual.

You and I have a right to help as many of these people as we choose. Neither they, nor anyone else has a right to demand it of anyone.

Hank

[hocndoc]

"" That's right. There is no such thing as a "right to have," or a right that makes a claim on anyone else's life. Rights pertain only to choice. There is only a right to do, and then, only if what you do does not threaten or use force against any other individual.""


Yes, rights are actually "negative" because, as you said, no one has a right to cause anyone else to act against his will or give up any life, liberty or property except when life itself (some say liberty) is endangered.

Frederick Bastiat, Locke, Jefferson all wrote about the matter of rights. Jefferson said it most succinctly, to the effect that government may only act to protect rights and punish those who infringe on them.

In the case of pregnancy, the two rights in question are the right to life of both the mother and the child and the right to liberty of the mother. Elective, intentional abortions are actions to kill another human being.

You defined "rights" in your post #158 as:
"" Laws and morality pertain only to rational/volitional beings. Man is defined as the rational animal.

Rights pertain only to beings capable of making choice.""

By this definition, you are denying the right to life and liberty to anyone not "capable of making choice." That makes it open season on many people who are protected under current laws.

And that is why logic leads to the postition that all humans - not just those that meet some criteria chosen by men - have equal rights that may not be infringed by others.