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Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 8. April 17 1978

What are Rights?

page 22

What are Rights?

I would like to thank the typstr for the comments made in reply to my letter published in Salient 27/3/78. I agree that the problem is over a scale of rights, and who is deemed to possess rights. There is a conflict between those who say that abortion is a woman's democratic right and those who say that abortion is not a right at all. The whole problem comes back to the question of how it can be determined what rights exist, and even, are there such things as rights?

It seems to me that the whole matter of rights derives from the nature of human beings. For example, the fact that most adults can think independently and form their own opinions indicates a right of freedom of thought, and following from this freedom of expression. But even so, there are limits on these rights, because if one person's rights are excercised in a certain manner, they may cut across the rights of others.

But is abortion a 'right' like this? Sure, women have the 'right' to do as the please with their bodies, but is this an unlimited 'right'? Obviously not—one doesn't have the right to use one's body to murder other human beings, or wilfully injure them, for instance. Do rights have no responsibilities attached to them? Does the human foetus have some rights? The foetus's rights may be less than that of the mother, but are its rights such that its existance should not be terminated unless the mother's life is in danger? To suggest that a foetus is not human at all is to deny fact, for it does have a number of human characteristics; though obviously it does not possess every human characteristic.

The answer to the questions I have mentioned above varies according to which side of the abortion issue one places oneself on. However, I submit that it is most certainly not obvious that a woman has a right to an abortion per se, and it is disputed by many that such a right exists. To go around shouting that abortion is a woman's democratic right is to state something which is not accepted by many, and is rather doubtful that exits at all.

Yours etc.

Vic Urwin.