The following quote has often
been attributed to Benjamin Franklin. I am not sure who said it, but it certainly
fits with the aim of the founders relative to our rights:
“The U.S. Constitution does not guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of
it. You have to catch up with it yourself." --
Lately this word has been
thrown around quite a lot. Politicians under pressure to shout about a right to
a “free college education” or a right to healthcare. What do we mean by the
word “rights?” Who has them? Who is obligated to see that the right is
fulfilled and not infringed upon? Many of us first heard the word “right” as it
was used in the Declaration of Independence; we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Let us consider this word “right” as we
use it in four ways:
Claim
right: A claim right is a
right which entails responsibilities, duties, or obligations on other parties
regarding the right-holder. If I hold the “mineral rights” to my property, then
I must be paid by someone who expects to extract these minerals.
A liberty right or privilege, in contrast, is simply a freedom or
permission for the right-holder to do something, such as freedom of speech,
press or assembly. There are no obligations on other parties to do or not do
anything. I can show up at “Speaker’s Corner” in London and talk about anything
from the demise of the earth according to the Mayan Calendar to monetary policy
in the US.
Natural
rights: Natural rights are
rights not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular
culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable; are rights
which are "natural" in the sense of "not artificial, not
man-made.”[i] They're sometimes called
moral rights or inalienable rights. John Locke (1632–1704) proposed that
there are three natural rights[ii]:
- Life: everyone is entitled to
live once they are created.
- Liberty: everyone is entitled
to do anything they want to so long as it does not conflict with the first
right.
- Estate: everyone is entitled to
own all they create or gain through gift or trade so long as it does not
conflict with the first two rights.
Legal
rights, in contrast, are based on a society's customs, laws,
statutes or actions by legislatures. Legal rights are sometimes referred to as
civil rights; the right to vote, serve on juries, etc.
Many people in politics and
government routinely refer to healthcare as a right. If healthcare is a right,
who is obligated to give you healthcare? How did you earn this right? What are
you giving in return? In 2009, John D. Lewis, PhD, at Duke University wrote:[iii]
“…the very idea that health care -- or any good provided by others -- is
a 'right' is a contradiction. The rights enshrined in the Declaration of
Independence were to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Each of these
is a right to act, not a right to things...”
Professor Lewis elaborates
further:
“These two concepts of rights -- rights as the right to liberty, versus
rights as the rights to things -- cannot coexist in the same respect at the
same time...To reform our health care industry we should challenge the premises
that invited government intervention in the first place. The moral premise is
that medical care is a right. It is not. There was no 'right' to such care
before doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies produced it. There is
no 'right' to anything that others must produce, because no one may claim a
'right' to force others to provide it. Health care is a service, and we all
depend upon thinking professionals for it. To place doctors under hamstringing
bureaucratic control is to invite poor results."
While the political rhetoric
sounds good when the politician declares that we have a “right to health care”
or a “right to a free college education,” we should be on guard. Who is
obligated to pay for this positive right in our society, a society based on the
protection of liberty for the individual?
Government cannot give you
anything unless they take it away from you or someone else first. Shouting for
free stuff is treading on the liberty of your fellow citizens.
[iii] Aug.
12, 2009 Huffington Post article "Health Care, Why Call It a
'Right'?" by John David Lewis
