SovereignLife Freedom Blog

When talking of freedom one cannot avoid the issue of individual rights. However, those who oppose freedom (although they do not admit to such) have a very different concept of rights. And they usually obfuscate the issue by referring to “human” rights – and attempt to sneak in things which are not rights at all.

Ayn Rand defined the issue of rights with her usual clarity:

The concept of a “right” pertains only to action—specifically, to freedom of action. It means freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by other men.

This is a far cry from the “rights” typical socialists and fascists  (which includes all governments everywhere) are on about.

Take the issue of health care – which President Obama has made his own moral crusade. What is not discussed is this question: Why on earth does the government have anything to do with providing or funding health care?

Well, to your typical socialist/fascist the government has every intention of meddling in this issue because health care is a human right.

But is it? Of course not. Any “human” or individual right cannot impose an obligation on another individual human. You do not have a right to brand name jeans which involves you stealing mine. You do not have a right to food which involves you stealing from your local supermarket. And you do not have a right to money which involves you picking other people’s pockets!

Same with health care. You do not have a right to something which obviously has to be provided by someone else – in this case a doctor – either by forcing the doctor give of his time for free, or by paying the doctor using funds taken off me by force (via taxation).

This issue of rights – valid or not – is at the core of so much conflict in our society that it is way past time we got this debate out in the open. Instead of Obama jousting with his fellow politicians as to the best way to fund universal health care, they should instead by arguing about the nature of rights and whether they have any right to be discussing health care at all!

Health care is a “good”, just like food and shelter and a myriad of other things we want. But it is not a right.

Andrew Napolitano has written a hard-hitting essay on this very issue which is well worth reading – What is a Right.