2.2 Value profile: respect  (Page 5/6)

Two thought experiments on autonomy

Mountain terrorist

2. george the chemist must choose between carrying out his responsibilities to his family and remaining true to his pacifism by refusing to work with a company that would use his knowledge of chemistry to build war weapons.

• Are those who insist that George set aside his pacifist beliefs interfering with his autonomy? If so, to which sense of autonomy are you referring? Self-choice, self-legislation, authenticity, or self-decision?
• Many students have characterized George’s reluctance to pursue work with the company that manufactures weapons as self-indulgence. They would say that while George’s pacifism is important to George’s sense of identity, he should be willing to sacrifice this in order to carry out his responsibilities to his wife and children. But if George sets aside fundamental commitments (like his pacifism) can he still remain integral and authentic?

What you are going to do

Exercise one: use the frameworks presented in the table above to justify the following rights: informed consent, due process, privacy, property (physical and intellectual), free speech, freedom of conscience. answer the following questions about each right.

1. Define or describe the right. Include an example.
2. Provide an argument that the right claim in question is essential to autonomy. That is, what capacity of action is protected by the right claim? How does the exercise of this capacity help an individual formulate and execute life plans that fulfill basic (rational?) desires? Why is the capacity of action essential and not merely trivial? (e.g., I have a right to scratch my nose in public when it itches.)
3. How is the capacity of action that the right protects vulnerable? (Why does it need protecting?) In other words, identify a standard or common threat that undermines an individual’s ability to exercise this capacity of action.
4. What are the duties that are correlative to your right? Who are the duty-holders? What must others do to keep from violating your right claim? What kinds of agents are in a position to prevent others from depriving you of your right? What kind of social mechanisms should be created to aid those who have been deprived of their rights?
5. Is the right claim feasible? For example, you may have a right to life. A standard threat to this capacity of action (and being) may be failure in both kidneys. But does your right to life compel another, say a stranger, to donate a kidney to save your life? Does this mode of exercising your right deprive another of something essential?