Southern Catholic Convert Sound Off
Sorry I haven't dropped in for a while. Busy with school.
What you said:
this right is given to us through our declaration of independence
That's not precisely correct. Documents cannot give us the right to life. The right to life pre-exists all documents. It pre-exists all other rights. It is a right that proceeds from the nature of what a human person is. It is intrinsic to personhood.
The declaration doesn't give us a right. It might recognize a right that we already have. It says as much: we are endowed by our creator with unalienable rights, and that among these unalienable rights is the right to life.
Just thought I'd help clarify your thinking about it. I hear lots of talk radio people talk about what rights the constitution gives us, and I think to myself "But that's not where rights come from. Fundamental human rights are prior to the documents that recognize and protect them."
Of course, some rights are civil rights (given by civil society), not natural rights (which proceed from the nature of the human person). Civil rights, like the right to vote, are granted by an act of the State and are enshrined in laws and documents. Whereas a person's right to exist doesn't depend on an act of the State. It's just there.
Yes, you are right that documents do not grant us our natural rights. Nothing you said conflicts with my understanding. You simply took this to a different level than where I was headed. Yes, maybe a better term would have been "acknowledged" but for the sake of where I was headed and in a legal sense I believe the use of the word give was accurate.
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