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    Exercise two: use the frameworks to examine the following rights claims. use the steps spelled out in exercise one. does the rights claim you are examining satisfy the steps in exercise one?

  • right to a livable environment
  • right to have adequate food, clothing, and shelter
  • right to an abortion
  • right to form unions and the right to strike
  • right to have gainful employment (right to a job)
  • right to an education
  • right to full medical care

Exercise three: martha nussbaum in women and human development portrays “two women trying to flourish.”

1. Vasanti was compelled to marry at a young age. In her caste, women are generally treated as property; she went from the family in which she was raised to the family of her husband. Like property, her husband was free to dispose of her as he saw fit. He beat her, forced her to work, and took the wages she earned through work and spent them on his leisure and on alcohol. In order to fund his alcohol habit, he had a vasectomy for which he received payment from the government. This ensured that he and Vasanti would not have children, something Vasanti wanted for her emotional fulfillment and economic security.

  • Does Vasanti have the right not to be treated as property?
  • How would this right be formulated?
  • What does it include? (For example, does it include the right not to be beaten or the right to be protected from forced, conjugal sex?)
  • What essential capacities of action would this right protect?
  • Do women like Vasanti have this right even though they may not be aware of it due to what is termed "preference deformation?"

2. Jayamma carried bricks for a living in order to support her family. Although her work was harder than that performed by men she was paid less than them. When she became too old to continue with this arduous labor, she applied for relief. The Indian government denied her relief because she had sons who were able to support her. Yet her sons, for various reasons, were not willing to support her. Her daughter, who was willing to support her, was a registered nurse. Yet she was not able to practice because she could not pay the money necessary to bribe hospital officials to give her a job.

  • Does Jayamma have a right to equal pay (and equal treatment) in her employment? Does this right exist in itself or must it be derived from another, more fundamental right?
  • If Jayamma has such a right, how can her society aid her as one who has been deprived of this right?
  • Do Jayamma’s sons have a duty to support her now that she is too old to work? If so, to what right is this duty correlative?
  • Does Jayamma’s daughter have a right to work in the profession (nursing) for which she is qualified? If so, what is the standard threat present in this situation that must be addressed to protect her right to work? How are the duties correlative to this right to work to be spelled out and distributed? (What individuals have which level of correlative duty? What organizations exist or could be devised to carry out some or all of the correlative duties?)

Works cited

  1. Aristotle. (1999). Nicomachean Ethics. Translated with Introduction, Notes, and Glosssary by Terrence Irwin. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
  2. Baker, B.W. (2004). “Engineering Ethics: An Overview.” In Engineering Ethics”: Concepts, Viewpoints, Cases, and Codes. Jimmy H. Smith and Patricia M. Harper, Eds. National Institute for Engineering Ethics, 21-22.
  3. Isaiah Berlin. “Two Concepts of Liberty.”
  4. Bradley, F. H. (1876, 1962). Ethical Studies, 2nd ed. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press: 4-10.
  5. Diego Gracia. (1989). Fundamentos de Bioética, Eudema, Madrid.
  6. Donaldson Thomas, (1989). The Ethics of International Business. New York: Oxford University Press.
  7. Flanagan, O. (1991). Varieties of moral personality: Ethics and psychological realism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 32.
  8. Galo Bilbao, Javier Fuertes, and José Ma Guilbert. (2006). Ética Para Ingenieros, 2a Edición, Sevilla, Espania: Universidad Jesuistas, 160-164.
  9. Nussbaum, M. (2001). Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press, 15-24.
  10. Shue, Henry. (1980). Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2nd Edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  11. Charles Taylor. "What is Human Nature?" In Philosophical Papers Volume 1, Human Agency and Language . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press: 15-44.

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Source:  OpenStax, Business, government, and society. OpenStax CNX. Mar 04, 2014 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col10560/1.6
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