When Do Human Rights Begin?

[Tree of Life]

When does a human being get their rights? How you answer this will likely depend upon where you believe human rights come from. Here are some options that I can imagine:

• When they are conceived.
• When they are born.
• When they become a citizen.

Maybe your answer is something in between these points or something else altogether. When do human rights begin for an individual?

 

[grasping the after wind]

When does a human being get their rights? How you answer this will likely depend upon where you believe human rights come from. Here are some options that I can imagine:

• When they are conceived.
• When they are born.
• When they become a citizen.

Maybe your answer is something in between these points or something else altogether. When do human rights begin for an individual?

I think there may be some argument to be made for either of the first two but the third is just not correct. The rights of citizenship begin when one becomes a citizen not human rights. Of course there is no overwhelming consensus concerning which rights are human rights and which rights are citizenship rights. Some will deny that there is a difference at all. For me, human rights are those rights humans possess innately, life, liberty, property etc. that since no one provides them for the individual no one has moral authority to deny them or take them away. Citizenship rights are provided by the state to the citizen such things as police protection, voting, marriage and other legal contracts, jury trial, welfare, access to highways, parks and public places etc. these rights are subject to the desires of the state and the state has the moral authority to deny them to anyone.

 

[Ken Rank]

When does a human being get their rights?

My answer is... when genetically it can be determined that you are a human. So right around conception!

 

[miamited]

HI treeoflife,

The only human right that God gives, is the right to be called a child of God. That comes when an individual is born of the Spirit of God.

All other rights, such as those found in our governing Constitution, are rights given to men by men and those men who give them determine when they will be given and even if they will be taken away.

While our Constitution is bold in declaring that we hold to some inalienable rights given to us by our Creator...there isn't any Scriptural support of that. If we follow the lives of the first apostles, God doesn't seem to have done much to enforce this idea that those men had some particular rights. Paul was beaten and chained an set in prison several times. There doesn't seem to be any teaching in the Scriptures that God thought such a thing was a violation of some rights that Paul had.

So, I think this argument concerning rights is red herring. What we, as men, are attempting to discern is what point in time does the fetus that is created through a sexual union become a murder victim in the eyes of God. However, it seems to me, that what christians seem to not be able to comprehend is that we are all sinners just as the Scriptures declare. That someone having an abortion, in the eyes of God, isn't any different than someone who steals or lies or has immoral sexual relations. No different than someone who fails to honor God or covets the material things that someone else might have attained in their life.

Jesus' death provides grace for all sin. Let us understand that the way to fix the problem isn't to stop people from having abortions any more than the problem of sin will be fixed by stopping people from stealing or lying or coveting. The problem will only be fixed by leading someone to the feet of Jesus and even then, it's only going to be of benefit to that one person who trusts in him.

Lost people are going to do what lost people do. We can outlaw every sin mentioned in all of the Scriptures and it won't save a single soul for the Kingdom of God. Believers need to be about preaching the good news of the gospel and let the world do what the world will do. Yes, if someone in your realm of influence is considering an abortion, then I believe we should do our best to teach them the truth of the gospel before they have the procedure. But, I also know that even if we fail and they do have the procedure. that hasn't removed them from the grace of God to forgive them for that sin at some later point when they do come to the truth. Neither will it save them just because they don't have the abortion because the law says that they can't.

God bless,
In Christ, ted

 

[RichardY]

When an Autocracy begins.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

That someone having an abortion, in the eyes of God, isn't any different than someone who steals or lies or has immoral sexual relations. No different than someone who fails to honor God or covets the material things that someone else might have attained in their life.

I think God is capable of recognizing the uniqueness of every individual and can judge taking into account all the many factors.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

When does a human being get their rights? How you answer this will likely depend upon where you believe human rights come from. Here are some options that I can imagine:

• When they are conceived.
• When they are born.
• When they become a citizen.

Maybe your answer is something in between these points or something else altogether. When do human rights begin for an individual?

I believe at conception but in difficult moral situations, such as ectopic pregnancy for example, those rights do not have the highest priority.

 

[St_Worm2]

When does a human being get their rights? How you answer this will likely depend upon where you believe human rights come from. Here are some options that I can imagine:

• When they are conceived.
• When they are born.
• When they become a citizen.

Maybe your answer is something in between these points or something else altogether. When do human rights begin for an individual?

Hi Tree of Life, it seems that we have a number of God-given rights, and the right to not be killed/right to life, is certainly among them (and that from our conception in the womb, because we were made in the image of God).

Genesis 9
6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image.
​

--David
p.s. - our founders also believed that we have certain, God-given rights.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

~The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America (excerpt)​

 

[gaara4158]

I believe at conception but in difficult moral situations, such as ectopic pregnancy for example, those rights do not have the highest priority.

Is it a human right to use another person’s body for sustenance against their will?

 

[ItIsFinished!]

Is it a human right to use another person’s body for sustenance against their will?

Is it the right for the mother to murder the baby if she foolishly thinks so?
The question you present is 100% ridiculous.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Depends on the right. You don't have the right to vote until you're 18.

 

[gaara4158]

Is it the right for the mother to murder the baby if she foolishly thinks so?
The question you present is 100% ridiculous.

Is it murder to remove a parasite you didn’t consent to host?

 

[RichardY]

@St_Worm2 Stripped of it's theological basis, the Declaration of Independence means nothing.

 

[ItIsFinished!]

Is it murder to remove a parasite you didn’t consent to host?

It is murder to kill a baby the mother doesn't want.

 

[gaara4158]

It is murder to kill a baby the mother doesn't want.

That's not what I asked. Is it murder to remove a human parasite you didn't consent to host?

 

[VirOptimus]

When does a human being get their rights? How you answer this will likely depend upon where you believe human rights come from. Here are some options that I can imagine:

• When they are conceived.
• When they are born.
• When they become a citizen.

Maybe your answer is something in between these points or something else altogether. When do human rights begin for an individual?

When it is recogniced by law.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Parasite? Wow! Talk about charged language. I come to this discussion as someone who is Pro-life but lives with someone Pro- choice and have many friends Pro-choice. So I value honest discussion attempting communication. What I see and hear a lot is point making. When I was a kid we used to call it "scoring". Put someone down, get in a good insult...SCORE! It is juvenile and will not lead to anything good.

 

[Tree of Life]

Is it a human right to use another person’s body for sustenance against their will?

Please stay on topic.

 

[Tree of Life]

Depends on the right. You don't have the right to vote until you're 18.

I'm talking about essential human rights. I think the right to vote is probably a civil right and not a basic human right, though it may be based on human rights. But I'm happy to talk about any right. At what point does a human being have any right at all?

 

[Tree of Life]

When it is recogniced by law.

Ah interesting. So human rights are something that the state gives or could take away?

I think this view creates some problems that I imagine you would not accept. Blacks in the slavery era in the south were viewed as property and the state did not believe that had many, if any, human rights. But if rights are as you say, then the south was correct! They had no rights recognized by law.

Edit: I also might ask - what exactly is the law recognizing? If there's nothing there before the law "recognizes" it, then the law really is creating or imparting rights, not recognizing rights that already exist. Right?