RE: Abortion is morally wrong
July 5, 2014 at 10:08 pm
(This post was last modified: July 5, 2014 at 10:11 pm by GrandizerII.)
(July 5, 2014 at 9:57 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote:(July 5, 2014 at 1:34 am)Irrational Wrote: A father requests his children that, if he should ever end up having an incurable and chronically painful disease in the future, that he be allowed to undergo euthanasia.
Years later, it happens. The father is struck with such a disease. But neither the children nor the doctors in the area want to give what he asked for because of conscience. Even though the father desperately wants his life to end.
Which right to support now?
I believe rasetsu has adequately addressed your first example, so I'm going to focus on this one. We'll assume for sake of argument that both rights do in fact exist.
Which right to support? Both of them, of course. The children and the physician have their right to conscience. The father likewise has his right to die with dignity. What he *does not* have is the right to impose duty on another person against their conscience.
What you appear to be arguing for here is that the right to die with dignity implies that one has the right to require a *particular person* to kill him, or assist him in killing himself. Whom precisely is infringing on whom's rights here?
The father in this case will simply have to find someone who is willing to assist. In this context, a right to die with dignity only means that a third party cannot act to infringe upon that right - not that they can be compelled to duty.
...and that is where I make my determination as to where rights fall in the priority hierarchy - a right that would impose a duty upon another party loses to one that only requires the other party to not infringe upon the right.
And I believe that the person, given the right reasons such as feeling severe chronic pain and knowing there's no cure and such (in other words, justifiable enough), should be allowed to undergo euthanasia if it's the only way to relieve their suffering and if that's what they desire. Otherwise, you'd just be prolonging their suffering. I base this on empathy rather than on some concern that some professionals are being "imposed" to do a big favor for someone else that only they can provide.
What about the other example? Should the father have a right to instill thoughts about eternal hell in their children because that's what their conscience tells them?
And no one should dismiss them as rights that shouldn't be taken seriously, because any right that is conceptualized should be considered. Just because they're not currently legal right in some nation doesn't mean they could never be. So I have to disagree that your friend has adequately justified why we shouldn't consider them seriously.
(July 5, 2014 at 10:02 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote:(July 5, 2014 at 3:16 pm)Irrational Wrote: Actually, I suspect even Cthulhu will agree that we're not just discussing legal rights in the US. But I'll see what he says.
I would agree that we're not necessarily speaking of legal rights at all - but I will agree that legal frameworks provide for a meaningful frame of reference.
All rights conceptualized can be potentially legal rights. So that is enough to consider them when providing examples of conflict of rights.
