This is the third in a series of posts that come from a paper I wrote for my English class.
The paper is seven or eight pages long, so, I decided to cut it into smaller pieces and post it over the next few days.
Consequently, as you read any of the posts on any given day, there may be a contextual flow of thought that is not readily perceived.
I encourage you, however, to keep reading (and sometimes re-reading) the subsequent posts (and prior posts) as it will become clearer as you go.
Please enjoy.
Denying Human Rights: A How-To Guide (part III)
Two questions must be answered here:
The first is, “What is a human being?” This might sound like a strange question to ask but there is much dispute on this topic as it pertains to the question of human rights. Once we have answered the question about which beings will be classified as human beings, we come to the next question:
“Should each and every one of these human beings be granted these two fundamental rights?” Or, another way of asking the question might be: “Under what circumstances can these rights be denied?” Once again, this may seem like an odd question, since, as we define which beings are and aren’t human beings, one might think that the rights simply fall into place but this also is a topic of debate among people and even in countries with a high value of and commitment to human rights, there seem to be times when these rights are denied.
Let’s answer these questions.
The first question is the easiest to answer in my opinion. I suggest we use the two criteria which scientifically and conclusively leave no room for doubt as to which beings are human beings. Let’s call these two criteria the taxonomic and the genetic systems of categorizing beings. These two systems of classification share much in common but come to their conclusions in different ways.
According to the taxonomic system, a human being is that which is in the kingdom animalia; phylum chordata; class mammalia; order primates; family hominidae; genus homo; species homo sapiens; and subspecies homo sapiens sapiens. According to science, only one type of being fulfills all of those categories at once; a human being.
The first is, “What is a human being?” This might sound like a strange question to ask but there is much dispute on this topic as it pertains to the question of human rights. Once we have answered the question about which beings will be classified as human beings, we come to the next question:
“Should each and every one of these human beings be granted these two fundamental rights?” Or, another way of asking the question might be: “Under what circumstances can these rights be denied?” Once again, this may seem like an odd question, since, as we define which beings are and aren’t human beings, one might think that the rights simply fall into place but this also is a topic of debate among people and even in countries with a high value of and commitment to human rights, there seem to be times when these rights are denied.
Let’s answer these questions.
The first question is the easiest to answer in my opinion. I suggest we use the two criteria which scientifically and conclusively leave no room for doubt as to which beings are human beings. Let’s call these two criteria the taxonomic and the genetic systems of categorizing beings. These two systems of classification share much in common but come to their conclusions in different ways.
According to the taxonomic system, a human being is that which is in the kingdom animalia; phylum chordata; class mammalia; order primates; family hominidae; genus homo; species homo sapiens; and subspecies homo sapiens sapiens. According to science, only one type of being fulfills all of those categories at once; a human being.
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