Rights originate from the concept of what is naturally fair and good, as in 'that seems right', then we have a tendency to codify the issue not just for the individual creature but under consideration of what seems rational as nature may have intended in the wholistic sense of the word. There are occasionally legal rights that get squeezed into society that violate that premise but they usually don't last the test of time when they do.
When I pluck an apple and eat it, no rational being says, 'oh poor apple.' The artist who thought it was beautiful enough to paint might say 'awww shucks,' or the fella that owned the tree might be ticked off and chase me down a road (that actually happened when I was a kid) but the apple's rights weren't violated. When we cut the wheat nobody complains but when we clear cut the forest to build an Armada which is just gonna get sunk in the north sea along with the treasure of the world... ehh I digress.
If it were the only apple tree and some knucklehead chopped it down to get firewood for his barbeque, rendering apple's extinct, we'd probably say that wasn't right. Plants and most animals have a natural course of competing, eating, and being eaten that furthers their ability to thrive on the planet in a good way. We seem to have the natural ability and sense to manage that nature, even though we often mess it up. Like we did with aborting most of the girl babies in China, India, etc and now for the first time in World history we have 100millon extra young men ... ehh there I go again.
A zygote on its own, frozen, or in a test tube, may be completely human but not consciously aware of any personhood, and something intentional might need to occur to put it in a condition that we could say is 'potential'. That seems like a huge stretch if we are claiming some obligation there. However pregnancy is not a zygote on its own. It is a condition and asking what is right under a condition is a question no different than any other rights question, what seems rational as nature may have intended things. |
