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20285 | If a right entails having the relevant desire, many creatures might have no right to life [Singer] |
Full Idea: If to have a right one must have the ability to desire that to which one has a right, then to have a right to life one must be able to desire one's own continued existence. | |
From: Peter Singer (Practical Ethics [1979], 07) | |
A reaction: The unborn, small infants, and persons in comas may well lack the relevant desire (at least consciously - arguably even a plant has a non-conscious 'desire' or drive for life). The idea that a right entails a conscious desire seems daft. |