Is there a Right to Healthcare?

According to long established tradition in the English common law, and as explained by the eminent Blackstone, the three rights in the Declaration of Independence are as follows.

Life is the right to live, intact with one's limbs, eyes, and organs. Any physical damage that cripples or removes a limb, or eyes, or kills one violates this right. This definition was important because according to the common law people had the right to defend themselves with lethal force if they were under threat of losing life or limb.

Liberty is the right to move about freely. Any false imprisonment, clapping into slavery, or kidnapping violates this right. Once again, under the common law people had the right to defend themselves with lethal force if they are under threat of losing their liberty.

Property is the right to keep the fruits of one's own labor, including items that are improved from their natural state, and to transfer the rights to this property to others as one wishes. If people become wealthy through their hard work, they can trade for the things they like, buy and sell items, and pass property on to charities or family as they wish. This is also known as the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness, because if happiness is brought nearer by a life without hardships, and hard work and the accumulation of property leads to a life without undue hardships, then they are one and the same. Certainly people cannot be happy if they are forced to constantly struggle in abject poverty for food, a bed, and a roof over their head.

Those with nothing to their name, newcomers and the bankrupt can always start building up wealth with their bare hands and their innate inventiveness. Anyone can. Nobody said it was easy to become wealthy, but with property rights it is possible. Without property rights it will never be possible for the poor to rise out of poverty. The best they can hope for without equal property rights is a few pennies thrown their way by their 'betters' in the elite classes to make their poverty slightly less miserable, and maybe free beer on holidays so they forget their misery as they also lose their drive to succeed. The question though is whether it is desirable for people to live in poverty and misery, even if it is alleviated by government charity. Shouldn't they be allowed and encouraged to lift themselves out of poverty instead? Shouldn't they have property rights allowing them to rise from poverty?

It is as plain as the nose on your face. If you punch your nose with your fist, you will have a nosebleed. It is your responsibility to stop the bleeding. It is your responsibility to clean up the blood after. By the fact of having punched your own nose, you are responsible for the fact of the results. And if you are responsible for an injury, whether to yourself or another, you are responsible for the remedy to it.

As even the most obstinate slaveholders learned in the War Between the States that ended the Peculiar Institution of Slavery, when rights conflict, for instance the right of a slaveholder to his property conflicting with the rights of a human to go where he wants and keep the fruits of his own labor, humans do not have rights to the life, liberty, or property of other humans.

This was never all that controversial. The controversial part was in defining who was human. Eventually all Americans came to the true conclusion that the differences between the different human races were cosmetic. Under the skin we all were, are, and forever will be members of the human race.

If healthcare were a right, which it is not, what would that mean? First, if Able has a right to healthcare, Dr. Baker must supply his labor to Able (violates Property rights). Second, Dr. Baker cannot move about freely, because he is required to serve Able (violates Liberty rights). And Dr. Baker's property rights in his medical learning, his medical practice, and his office are seized for Able's needs (more violations of Property rights). Dr. Baker serves Able, just as all doctors serve patients now, but Dr. Baker no longer has a choice of whether to serve Able. Now he is placed in involuntary service. Another phrase for involuntary service is involuntary servitude. And that is equal to bondage or slavery. Dr. Baker must be a slave if Able has a right to healthcare!

And that is why the right to healthcare is not a right. Because if it is a right then it places all the Dr. Bakers into slavery. No right can place another person into slavery. Such rights are illegitimate.

What is healthcare really? It is a responsibility that goes with being alive. If you are alive, you have the responsibility to stay healthy. There is no argument possible about it. You can exercise. Nobody else can exercise for you. You can eat right. Nobody else can eat for you. You can pay attention to wounds and diseases. Nobody else knows how you feel until you tell them. Nobody has any responsibility for your body other than you. You do.

And that is the underlying reason we are having this discussion. The Christianity-hating progressive movement could not reinvent society following reason alone without acknowledging God, has therefore abandoned reason entirely, and now denies that individuals have responsibility for their selves and their actions.

The Truth is obvious to those who look. Don't be afraid to see what you see and say so.

This post was inspired by A Well-Reasoned Perspective on the "Right" to Health Care, by Amy Miller and Ryan Kazmierczak. Read here for more on rights and duties.

Technorati Tags: Health, Rights, Responsibilities, Obamacare, Government, Constitution

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I Know My Rights—Do You?: Toward a Catalog of Unalienable Rights and Duties

THE CALL

The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.

(Albert Einstein)

"I know my rights." We have all heard it. But what does it mean? What are the rights that are invoked but unlisted in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? You know the ones.

Article the eleventh [9th Amendment] .... The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Article the twelfth [10th Amendment] ... The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Right. Those ones.

What might be the rights and duties of a free people that were such common knowledge in the days of the founders that they declined to write them down? They were well-known rights from English history and common law, but were not listed because the founders didn't want a prescriptive list of rights to deny or disparage other rights: the rights, duties, and powers that were mentioned in passing in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Three of the rights were listed in the most important passage of the Declaration of Independence. This passage which powered the American Revolution and spurred America to greatness goes like this.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

The question under consideration is what are the rights I emphasized with bolding and underlines that are mentioned in the Preamble and guaranteed in the 10th Amendment?

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Obviously, three of these rights are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. The key characteristic of unalienable rights is that, with the exceptions of defense and self-protection, an unalienable right for one person should not trespass on an unalienable right for another person. What are the other rights, hinted at in the Declaration's Preamble (underlined above)? W. Cleon Skousen lists the following unalienable rights in The 5000 Year Leap.

• The right of self-government


• The right to bear arms for self-defense


• The right to own, develop, obtain, and dispose of property


• The right to make personal choices


• The right of free conscience (freedom of religion)


• The right to choose a profession


• The right to choose a mate


• The right to beget one's kind


• The right to assemble


• The right to petition


• The right to free speech


• The right to a free press


• The right to enjoy the fruit of one's labors


• The right to improve one's position through barter and sale


• The right to contrive and invent


• The right to explore the natural resources of the earth


• The right to privacy


• The right to provide personal security


• The right to provide nature's necessities—air, food, water, clothing, and shelter


• The right to a fair trial


• The right of free association


• The right to contract

To which I would add these

• The right to know the law


• The right to cooperate with others to mutually provide personal security


• The right to educate one's self or others

And as a capstone to these unalienable rights add the big three from the Declaration

• The right to life (Meaning life and limb. Upon which all the other rights depend)


• The right to liberty (The right to travel and relocate one's home. And the right not to be kidnapped, enslaved, or falsely imprisoned. This is also foundational)


• The right to pursue happiness (as John Adams wrote, this really means property rights. "All men are born free and independent, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine [i.e. in other words], that of seeking and obtaining their safety [first clause] and happiness [second clause]." Brackets mine.)

This group of three rights (Life, Liberty, and Property) were identified by the great jurist Sir William Blackstone eleven years before the Declaration as the three most fundamental rights from which the others sprang. His Commentaries were widely circulated in the Colonies, for the people were very concerned with the systematic violations of their rights that had been going on for years. To me, the fact that the greatest legal mind of the time had previously identified them as central, in a wildly popular work that was broadly available in the Colonies, explains why they were placed so prominently in the Declaration of Independence.

INDIVIDUAL DUTIES

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

(George Washington, from his Farewell Address)

It is impossible to avoid responsibilities for a person's own actions. That is the nature of the Creator's plan. But in addition to responsibilities for one's own actions, a person can take on obligations. Obligations are like responsibilities, but they are assumed voluntarily rather than involuntarily. And then there are duties, lawful but more basic than laws, that fall on persons who choose to live within the structure of a lawful society, or an ordered liberty. Within the ordered liberty envisioned by Madison, Jefferson, and the other founders, unalienable rights carry with them duties to prevent people from trespassing on the rights of others.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

(John Adams)

And so we come to the Duties of lawful free people in a free society under the rule of law. These are voluntary like all obligations, but they are mandatory, like all laws required for the orderly function of a free society. They cannot be passed off to the government, but are individual duties, just like the individual rights. These duties descend from the Divine laws followed by the ancient Anglo-Saxons and the ancient Israelites when they were free peoples, before their representative governments were replaced with kingships. Skousen lists the duties as follows.

• The duty to honor the supremacy of the Creator and his laws.


• The duty not to take the life of another except in self-defense (Justified only by being falsely imprisoned, kidnapped, or under threat of loss of life or limb. Assault and battery are not sufficient cause unless there is a reasonable fear of loss of life. Nor is loss of property, though one is able to protect property short of homicide).


• The duty not to steal or destroy the property of another.


• The duty to be honest in all transactions with others.


• The duty of children to honor and obey their parents and elders.


• The duty of parents and elders to protect, teach, feed, clothe, and provide shelter for children.


• The duty to support law and order and keep the peace.


• The duty not to contrive through a covetous heart to despoil another.


• The duty to provide insofar as possible for the needs of the helpless—the sick, the crippled, the injured, the poverty-stricken.


• The duty to honorably perform contracts and covenants both with God and man.


• The duty to be temperate [prudent].


• The duty to become economically self-sufficient.


• The duty not to trespass on the property or privacy of another.


• The duty to maintain the integrity of the family structure.


• The duty to perpetuate the [human] race.


• The duty not to promote or participate in the vices which destroy personal and community life.


• The duty to perform civic responsibilities—vote, assist public officials, serve in official capacities when called upon, stay informed on public issues, volunteer where needed.


• The duty not to aid or abet those involved in criminal or anti-social activities.


• The duty to follow rules of moral rectitude.

The duties (to be enforced by law) of those who have criminally flouted these duties, wrongly trespassed on the rights of another, and caused damages to the life, liberty, or property of another, or by committing treason, are (from Blackstone):

• The duty to equally recompense all those whom one has injured or falsely imprisoned or whose property one has damaged or taken with force or fraud, plus pay a penalty.


• The duty to suffer physical or civil death as the rightful penalty for homicide, treason, or causing loss of limb (or sight) to another. The meaning of physical death is self-evident. Civil death is loss of property and banishment from the country (or to a monastery, in the ancestral English law).

Together this is a good start to a list of unalienable rights and the duties with which the Creator endowed all free humans. It would be useful and clarifying to expand upon each one of them. But it would undoubtedly be the work of many pages to do it.

VIRTUE

I thank God that I have lived to see my country independent and free. She may long enjoy her independence and freedom if she will. It depends on her virtue.

(Sam Adams)

In this time of government-caused crisis it is the virtue of every American that will be called upon. Let us be strong enough to face and overcome the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth,—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that 'Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little, partial, local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves become a reproach and by-word down to future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate circumstance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

(Benjamin Franklin, address to the Constitutional Convention on 28th June 1787)

Let us do as the Constitutional Convention did, and before we act, let us pray.

Technorati Tags: Constitution, Rights, Duties

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