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What are moral rights? We have tried to define moral rights but have been unsuccessful. To me, morals are defined by what each person believes; for instance someone may be a Christian and their morals come from their religion. Being that there are many different religions or non-religions, how can there be moral rights when not one religion or non-religion will have the same morals? It doesn't make sense to say that everyone has this moral right when maybe someone may not believe that people should or do have that moral right. This leads into my next question, who decides what moral rights that people should or do have? The government? Local or state or federal government? To help me better understand rights, can we define moral rights or is there not really a definition because it is such a broad term?
This is the main idea in the reading that I couldn't get past. Another main one was the Interracial Marriage. How in the world can a government say that it is "against the law" to marry whites with non-whites? What about non-whites with non-whites? Did the government say anything about that? Probably not because in this case they were trying to keep public schools segregated. I don't think this is right but that still doesn't give the American Government the right to control the lives of Americans. This seems that it would go against the moral rights or the rights of human beings. Humans/Americans should be able to make decisions by themselves therefore, they should be able to make the right as to who they marry.
I believe that this should not be an obligation for the government to be prying around in. They should have been focusing on bigger issues at that time other than who people marry.
Mental Models of Purpose of College
2 years ago
From my reading of the chapters, I think your frustration with the right to marriage is, to some extent, a purpose or function of rights. It seems to me that these rights work as a "shield" of sorts from government intervention; they create a barrier around certain aspects of our lives into which no government can intrude. Thus, your frustration may, in part, explain why such a right was necessary--it was an aspect of life that needed to be placed out of the control of government.
ReplyDeleteDear Rachel,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your post, I began to think in the back of my mind about how each country has a different set of rights and a different set of views on rights. That leads me to believe that rights, both moral and legal, are based on experience more than anything. I think that is why a country can't "get it right the first time",it takes time to work the rights out into the proper structure.
I think that that is why Wellman spends a rather lengthy chapter on the history of moral/legal rights...they come from the collective experiences of the people of a nation. That's why I don't think Rachel will see a resolution to interracial marriages any time soon. We try to define if people have a right to marry whoever, but because everyone has different experiences (culture), not one can agree whether it is or not. We all come at it from different angles, and everyone has to have a say.
Also, I think that because it was illegal to marry a person from another race, that gets so ingrained into us that it's hard to knock it down and say, "Oh, we were denying a right". Once a black man marrying a white woman looks strange, it takes years and years for it to be considered normal.
In short, the time element is essential, and I would put out the definition of a moral right as "one that has existed in one form or another over a vast expanse of time." out there for people to agree or disagree with.
Ashley
I agree with you on the confusion on what exactly a moral right should be defined as. It's frustrating for me to understand whether I think there is a proliferation of rights or not, because what one person may consider "moral" another may not.
ReplyDelete--This was kinda short and pointless, just wanted to let you know you're not the only one struggling with that..!