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2 comments
The Declaration of Independence gives three examples of inalienable rights, in the well-known phrase, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”.
The US Constitution recognises that certain universal rights cannot be taken away by legislation as they are beyond the control of a government. Inalienable rights are given to every individual at birth – they are not transferable or capable of being taken away.
While there is not a specific list of inalienable rights, there are some rights that are generally accepted as natural rights. Some of these include:
• To act in self-defence
• To own private property
• Freedom of thought and speech
• Freedom of religion
• To move freely within a country or to another
Ultimately, there may be no such thing as objectively "inalienable rights", but subjectively, there's probably very good reason to have a few.
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Inalienable rights in the strongest possible sense of the term don't necessarily exist, but for all intents and purposes, I think there are some rights that should very well come with the nature of being in existence, including those mentioned above like "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
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There is one inalienable right in particular that I could personally envision standing the test of basically all time and context:
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The right to life (to not be harmed or killed purposefully)
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That, to me, seems like one right that might come the closest to being something most people would desire to be an objectively, absolutely inalienable right.
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