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Wrong Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2020

Elizabeth Wolgast
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Abstract

An atomistic model of society leads us to address injustices in terms of individual rights, but rights are curious possessions and don't always give the protection that's needed. Examples are patient's rights, children's rights and a fetus's right to life, all of which go wrong because they assume that the subjects are independent and autonomous. This assumption often fails. Rights work where people are in a position to press them; for others they give only a caricature of justice.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 2 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Philosophy and Women Symposium , Winter 1987 , pp. 25 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 by Hypatia, Inc.

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