Three Features Of Moral Rights

Everyone has rights. Even animals have rights. Our textbook defines a right as “an individual’s entitlement to something”. Rights may derive from moral standards or a legal system. Three types of rights are legal rights, moral rights and human rights.

A legal right, according to our textbook is “an entitlement that derives from a legal system and permits or empowers a person to act in a specified way or that requires others to act in certain ways toward that person.” Legal rights are created by a legal system and can be different in different areas. For example: in South Carolina you have a legal right to ride a motorcycle without a helmet. However it is against the law to ride without a helmet in North Carolina. So in South Carolina you are empowered to choose whether you want to wear a helmet or not.

Our textbook defines human and moral rights as “rights that all human beings everywhere possess to an equal extent by virtue of being human beings.” Moral rights apply to all human beings no matter what area you are in.

Three features that define a moral right are as follows. First, moral rights are tightly correlated with duties. If I have a right to do something, then others have a

Kant’s principle is closely related to the golden rule. In Kant’s theory, put yourself in the other person’s shoes before you act. You should also question the consequences of an action if everyone did it. For example; you need a pack of copy paper at home. There are at least twenty reams of paper in your office. The company won’t miss one ream. You should stop and think. Put yourself in the owner of the company’s shoes. How would you feel about an employee taking paper from you? You should also question, what if everyone else in the office took one ream each. The cost would add up fast. So the decision is easy. It is morally wrong to take copy paper from your