| In some cases we should allow natural rights to trump "made made rights".
If we wish to live in a civilized culture rather then in the jungle we must have concepts like our Bill Of Rights and Consitution. ETC. Which is about preventing one person from violating the personal rights of others. In nature a Tom Cat has the right to rape a female cat, as this will insure reproduction and the survival of the spieces. The feline cat has the right to fight off the tom cat if she so wishes. (harmones). The "natural rights" book would support the notion that rape is the natural right of the male of the spieces. But needless to say we do not favor that right in our civilized communities (unless you are in the military where "boys will be boys").
Natural rights work for animals in nature for two reasons, one is that they do not have the advanced technology that we have ( relative to weapons and so forth ) and two: because they have not reached our level of intelligence and reason, which makes us more aware and causes us to have more compassion or concern about others and about the importance of maintaining a well organized group culture. Which has resulted as something we call a conscience. We cannot return to nature nor to that Garden of Eden way of life. And so relative to the thinking of our more intelligent culture (civilized concepts) most of the natural rights would now be rather un-natural for humans. |