Rights Intro

Do we have rights?

As a Catholic, I think a simple answer for me would be YES. There are plenty of things I would consider humans have the right to do/receive something (positive rights) and the right of interference from something. It sounds simple enough, but when considering how much of a role rights play in both our faith and our government, I think it’s important to ask some questions about distinguishing those two fields.

So let’s say I believe that all humans have a right to life. That belief wholeheartedly stems from my belief as a Catholic, and develops my beliefs on the legal system and the government as well. It’s why I think the government doesn’t have the right to take a life of one of its citizens. 

Ok, we have this right to life. Let’s think more about what this means. We ought to be free from the government taking our own life, and the government ought to intervene if we take the life of another person. I think the majority of people can agree on that. But if the right to life means surviving, and food and water is a necessary means of survival, ought the government to provide those for us if we can’t get them ourselves? It seems like a necessary conclusion to follow from the right to life. What about healthcare? What about things that can harm our lives in the long term, like pollution? You can see how this one right, based on faith, introduces a lot of muddiness about other ones.

And that’s only about the right to life. One single right. We’ll talk about other ones, and possible conclusions to this way of thinking, in the upcoming weeks. Hope you all are having a pleasant start to 2025, and I will see you next week.