Do You Own a Gun?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

My point is that I/we recognize that a person has the right to live because that's the way we were socialized. Not everybody thinks that way, which means there are not universal "rights", they differ by society. I think your example of the jungle people shows that. Ask them if the children have a right to live. Ask a Saudi if a thief has the right not to have his hand cut off for stealing. As soon as you understand that rights differ by society, you have to acknowledge that they are determined by society.

But it's not a discussion about the practical application of reality. "Human rights" is a philosophical question. If the jungle people are wrong, then they do not have the ability to determine the children's right to live. They have the ability to determine whether the child lives, but they are wrong when they do so. If they are wrong, there has to be a reason. The reason is that the child has an inherent right to be allowed to live, and no amount of societal tradition will make it okay for them to kill the child. It's not a legal or a practical question, it's a question of morality.