[rockrr]

Does a child have a right to be conceived and raised by a mother and a father?

No, but once conceived, the child has the right to live and the mother an obligation to see to defend that life.

Or do two men have a right to hire a technician to secure an ovum for them, unite it with a sperm in some laboratory, and implant the child so conceived in a woman treated not as a mother but as a gestational mule?

Not a natural right, but a legal one, albeit unnatural one if society grants it to them.

JMO

[old republic]

Not a natural right, but a legal one, albeit unnatural one if society grants it to them.

Society can't grant rights, only God can. Rights therefore stem from natural law not society. If society grants rights to someone, then it would be a privilege, not a right.

[DBeers]

Not a natural right, but a legal one, albeit unnatural one if society grants it to them.

I would agree -in the case of this the argument then is who grants such rights, benefits, privileges, and rewards extended by society to an individual. Is it some judge or society itself that is the authority...