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Who Gets To Decide My Faith? Human Rights, Religious Liberty and Child Circumcision

Who Gets To Decide My Faith? Human Rights, Religious Liberty and Child Circumcision. Jude Chua PhD FRHistS FCOT FCollT. What Are Human Rights?. What do we mean? Do Human Rights Exist?. Human Rights: Protection or Promotion of Liberties. Negative Liberties “Free from….”

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Who Gets To Decide My Faith? Human Rights, Religious Liberty and Child Circumcision

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  1. Who Gets To Decide My Faith?Human Rights, Religious Liberty and Child Circumcision Jude Chua PhD FRHistS FCOT FCollT

  2. What Are Human Rights? • What do we mean? • Do Human Rights Exist?

  3. Human Rights:Protection or Promotion of Liberties • Negative Liberties • “Free from….” • Positive Liberties • “Free to…”

  4. Human Rights: Liberties + for what? • Negative Liberties + Preferences/Wishes/Feelings/Wants/Desires • Positive Liberties + Ethical Account of the Good/Right/Just/Choiceworthy/Desirable

  5. Child Circumcision: Cologne Ban

  6. Child Circumcision debate (circa 13/7/2012) • Cologne Courts, Germany • Circumcision – removal of skin at the tip of the male sexual organ, often performed as a religious ritual • A question of liberties, and of human rights • Test both accounts of Human Rights

  7. Neg Liberties: Human Rights as the Right to Choose One’s Preferences • Values choosingaccording to one’s preferences (regardless of what is chosen) • Problems: • Pits preferences against preferences, rather than develop a moral claim • Liberal premises have theological basis, and are not persuasive

  8. Positive Liberties: Human Rights as the Right to Achieve a Good • Not about valuing one’s preferential choices, but about being enabled to enjoy goods • Enjoying the good of religion: knowing truth about God and life’s ultimate meaning, etc • (Human) Right to religious liberty? – yes, I think

  9. Positive Liberties: Human Rights as the Right to Achieve a Good • Against child circumcision – hmm…. • Ability to decide one’s faith requires relevant capacities • Foreskin seems irrelevant as a capacity for such decisions • Unlike female genital mutilation, which is harmful

  10. What’s the “problem” for the future? • Taking human rights seriously • Some “human rights” talk true, others maybe untrue? • Human Rights as a muddled discourse, our problem for the future.

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