The Rights of Beings

[ysabetwordsmith]

my_partner_doug pointed me to this qualification of beings with rights: "The rule is anyone who can understand what rights are and can both respect and demand them, has them."

I really like that rule.  I also note that its second point would disqualify quite a lot of humans.

Comments

[cissa.livejournal.com]

How can one tell whether someone understands rights?

In my opinion, my cats would meet this requirement... but they cannot explain their understanding of "rights" (though they sure do insist on them in practice!), even though they're mostly pretty respectful of other's rights.

I don't have a problem with a lot of humans being disqualified.