The "right to health care" and "right to birth control" have been a few recent examples. The argument is that possessing those things is necessary to life (it isn't), and therefore the State ought to ensure that everyone has access to them.
Rick Kelo, an economist, social thinker, and alumni of the US Military Academy at West Point, looked at this question through the Classic Liberal lens and found that if the claim government determines rights is untrue, then every argument a politician uses for justifying a new program because it is a "right" must also be untrue.
"Rights are Human Constructs, you don't find them in the State of Nature. Man had no rights until the government gave them to him," argue critics.
When asked how he responds to that claim Rick Kelo answered,"What political body gave the Neanderthal the right to defend his cave? When two young children are playing with sticks they found on the ground and one takes the other's stick what political body gave the first one the right to reply, 'HEY! That's MINE!'"
Kelo points out that humans are born with certain fundamental rights because every person makes their own moral choices. They possess what philosophers call "Moral Agency." As a moral agent we each independently understand that we possess certain rights and we also project our understanding onto every other person we meet and understand they possess the same rights.
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| Rick A Kelo |
