7/26/2019 Rights Essay

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Essay Guidelines: Moral Rights Paper

Find an article in the public press (such as a letter to the editor, an editorial, a news article, etc.)

in which one or more moral rights are mentioned. (Be sure that the rights mentioned are moral

and not legal.) Use this article to answer the following questions:

1. What tpe of right is mentioned! "#atural or special! $ositi%e or negati%e! &ibert,immunit, or welfare!'

. What do the possession criteria seem to be for this right!

. What duties are generated b this right, and who has those duties!

*. With what other rights would ou e+pect this right to conflict! Which of these rights

is liel to o%erride the others, and wh!

-he answers to most or all of these questions ma not appear in the article oure using, so

oull need to wor out this information for ourself. Be sure that the answers ou pro%ide are

well thought out and carefull defended.

-he item (letter to the editor, editorial, or whate%er) ou use for this assignment does not

need to be current or from the local area. /ll ou need is someone discussing a moralissue b taling about rights. 0ne thing want ou to learn from this assignment is 2ust

how difficult it is to do a good 2ob of using moral rights to resol%e moral issues.

0nce ou%e found our article, BE SURE TO INCLUDE A COPY WITH YOURESSAY. ll need to see it to understand what ou%e written about it.

1. 3our essa should go through the * parts of the question. First, what sort of right is

discussed in our article!If more than one right is mentioned, just select one todiscuss in this essay.&oo at the descriptions and e+amples of the tpes of rights to

mae our classification. 4+plain briefl how ou arri%ed at this classification.

2. 5econd, what are the possession criteria for this right! -his will almost certainl #0-be discussed in our article, so oull ha%e to figure it out for ourself. What

characteristics would someone ha%e to ha%e in order to possess this right!

a. For natural rights, the characteristics might be rationalit, the capacit toe+perience pleasure or pain, the ownership of propert, and so forth.

b. f our right is a special right, e+plain what sort of action or relationship

created it.

3. -hird, what duties does this right generate, and who has those duties!

a. f our right is a negati%e right, then the corresponding duties will be to lea%e

the right6holder alone in some wa, and the right will be possessed b all othermoral agents (i.e., b e%erone else).

b. f our right is a positi%e right (welfare right), then oull ha%e to figure out

who, e+actl, has the dut to pro%ide assistance to the right6holder, and whatassistance is morall required.

c. f our right is a special right, the person who has the dut will be the one who

performed the action, or the other part in%ol%ed in the relationship

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(depending on how that special right was created). 3oull then ha%e to figure

out what the content of that dut is.

4. Fourth, with what other rights will the right ou%e chosen conflict! When the right6

holder e+ercises this right, who else would be unhapp and wh!

a.f our right is a negati%e right, it ma conflict with other peoples immunitrights.

b. f our right is a positi%e right, it ma conflict with other peoples libert right

to act as the see fit.

c. f our right is a special right, it might conflict with almost an other sort of

right.