Whence come rights?

There has been a lot of talk lately about basic human rights. It seems everything except cable TV is considered a basic right. So where do these rights come from? If they truly are basic they must be something we are born with. What, then, are the rights given us by nature itself?

The right to life? Hardly. The universe has a virtually infinite array of ways to kill you. From tiny microbes to storms many miles wide. There are no guarantees you will survive to see the sun set or wake to see it rise.

The right to food and water? A right is something owed to you. If you are stranded on an island, nature is not going to give you a ham sandwich. If you are lost in the desert, nature is not going to provide a bottle of water to sustain you. These are things you will have to provide for yourself.

Health care is the latest item to be declared a basic human right. This assertion is easily debunked. Returning to our hypothetical deserted island; if you fall and break you leg, where does the medical care come from? Is Dr. McCoy going to transport down and patch you up? Of course not. If medical care is a right, it is certainly not a natural one.

Food, clothing, shelter, health, even life itself. None of these things are promised to us by the universe. If rights are a natural thing, inherent from birth, then we have no rights.

So rights, if they exist at all, are purely an artificial construct. They are a way to provide order in society. They are the rules we use to govern our interactions with each other.

Let's return to our deserted island. You wake one morning to find another castaway on the beach. Now there are two humans interacting. That means we can have rights and morality. So what rights do you now have? If the new resident is a carpenter, does that give you the right to demand they build a shelter? Would the presence of a chef grant you the right to food?

In other words, do your rights create an obligation on the part of your neighbor? That would create a paradox. If I am obligated to fulfill your rights, then you are obligated to fulfill mine. Each of us is enslaved to everybody else. At the same time, we are master of everybody else. It is impossible to be master and slave at the same time. That makes it impossible for anything to be considered a right if somebody else is obligated to provide it.

Whether you are the lone person or one in a sea of millions, your rights are the same. They are basic, inherent, unaffected by time or location. If you can produce it, maintain it, and defend it, then it is yours. If you are unwilling or unable to produce it, maintain it, and defend it, then you have no right to demand others do so in your stead. It doesn't matter whether it's a ham sandwich or a life-saving operation. To demand it as a right is to enslave another human and require them to tend your needs.