richardhutnik said:
So, exactly what universal see of agreed to values is going to be selected in order to be able to determine what these rights are? Do you want to value life as one of them? If so, then do you want to agree when life begins so that matters? And as far as "viable" goes, exactly what new born can fend for itself? Anyhow, if you go down this path, then that means abortion is wrong, because it terminates a human (or potential human). And who says that "rights" is the correct framework for formulation a system of ethics? |
The values have already largely been selected and are written in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though of course the great thing about them is that as the world progresses and more rights are needed they can be added later on.
Also there doesn't need to be agreement on when life begins, it is not a clear fact at all. As science advances and we have better understanding of how a baby develops we will increasingly know what is going on and therefore be able to come to perhaps better decisions on when the fetus should start to gain human rights. Terminating a potential human isn't necessarily wrong under a secular view of ethics, terminating an actual human is wrong but not a potential one.
