Re:An Orangutan Has Some Human Rights, Argentine Court Rules
by Retra on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @01:24PM
(#8789371)
Rights approximate the structure of laws that people agree in some vague way should exist. My point is that any discussion about rights can be reframed without ever using the word 'rights' and usually it is much clearer and more consistent to do so.
Most of the time you can just say something like "It should be unlawful to do X in situation Y because it undermines the ability of those involved to make predictably good decisions."
Rights are useful in the same way that asserting "pi = 3" is useful: it's simply better than nothing. It is hardly some kind of ideal, despite how easy life would be if it were true.
Most of the time you can just say something like "It should be unlawful to do X in situation Y because it undermines the ability of those involved to make predictably good decisions."
Rights are useful in the same way that asserting "pi = 3" is useful: it's simply better than nothing. It is hardly some kind of ideal, despite how easy life would be if it were true.