HPSC1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Joel Feinberg, Egg Cell, Fetus
24 May 2018
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Lecture 7: Abortion continued
Rights
- A oal ight is a justified dead that the atual ejoet of the sustae e
soiall guaateed agaist stadad theats
4 Key points
1. Right claims are justified demands against others
2. Rights entail not only holding, but enjoying (i.e. there is no point having a right if you
at eeise it)
3. Rights claims entail obligations or duties for others to respect or honor those rights- not
always clear what claims it gives you (e.g. a teacher telling student to be quiet is not
suppessig the studets ights)
4. A minimal standard of protection of the substance of a rights claim should be
guaranteed (not simply permitted)
What sort of things have rights?
- Joel Feinberg:
The sorts of beings who can have rights are precisely those who have (or who
can have) interests
A right holder must be capable of being represented and it is impossible to
represent a being that has no interests
A right holder must be capable of being a beneficiary in their own person, and a
being without interests is a being that is incapable of being harmed or benefited,
haig o good o sake of its o
Rights and interests
- Peter Singer is not convinced that the notion of a moral right is a helpful or a meaningful
one, except when it is used as a shorthand way of referring to more fundamental moral
considerations
- Rights trump other considerations- the right to liberty trumps the right to life (abortion)
Abortion and fetal interests
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
A (cid:373)o(cid:396)al (cid:396)ight is a (cid:862)justified de(cid:373)a(cid:374)d that the a(cid:272)tual e(cid:374)jo(cid:455)(cid:373)e(cid:374)t of the su(cid:271)sta(cid:374)(cid:272)e (cid:271)e so(cid:272)iall(cid:455) gua(cid:396)a(cid:374)teed agai(cid:374)st sta(cid:374)da(cid:396)d th(cid:396)eats(cid:863) The sorts of beings who can have rights are precisely those who have (or who can have) interests. A right holder must be capable of being represented and it is impossible to represent a being that has no interests. A right holder must be capable of being a beneficiary in their own person, and a being without interests is a being that is incapable of being harmed or benefited, ha(cid:448)i(cid:374)g (cid:374)o good o(cid:396) (cid:858)sake(cid:859) of its o(cid:449)(cid:374) Peter singer is not convinced that the notion of a moral right is a helpful or a meaningful one, except when it is used as a shorthand way of referring to more fundamental moral considerations. Rights trump other considerations- the right to liberty trumps the right to life (abortion) It is wrong to kill an innocent human being.
