Legal Issues

1. Legal Issues

2. The Two Laws • “Do all you have agreed to do.” • “Do not encroach on other persons or their property.” • - This wording of the two laws comes from Richard Maybury in Whatever Happened to Justice?

3. Unsolved Questions • Because common law has been largely replaced by civil law, there are questions which have not been answered. • We wish to consider some of them and examine the issues and the answers given by the left (Democrats), the right (Republicans), the center (the statists) and the common law position.

4. Abortion the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus - www.webster.com

5. Abortion • Abortion is the purposeful termination of a human pregnancy – a pregnancy which would have naturally ended in the birth of a human child. • This question of abortion brings up two major issues: • right to life • right to privacy

6. What life should be protected? • How do we determine what life should be protected? • Doesn’t a chimp or a dolphin have more intelligence and capability than an infant or a senile human? • Note that this issue brings in: • Animal Rights • Euthanasia • Right to Die

7. When does life begin? • In times not so long ago in the U.S. and even currently in other countries, children aren’t named or given an identity till they reach a certain age because so many children die early in their life. i.e. infant mortality rates are very high. • Now we have the medical ability to save babies born as early as 23 weeks (40 weeks is full term) http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DS/00137.html

8. When does life begin? • Some argue that life begins at birth. • Some argue that life begins at vitality. • Some argue that life begins at the point the women knows she is pregnant. • Some argue that life begins at conception. • How come we don’t give death certificates to or have funerals for miscarried babies?

9. The mother’s right to privacy • Do people have a right to privacy? • Should I be able to do what I want with my body? • how I eat • tattoos and piercings • refusal of medical care • have an abortion • kill myself

10. Animal Rights

11. What rights should animals have? • Animals can feel pain and pleasure. • Animals can be social (dogs, dolphins). • What is the human obligation toward an animal? • Should animals be mistreated (beaten, starved, tortured)? Or should that be prevented? • Can we kill animals? Or do they have a right to life? If so, why? If not, why not?

12. Euthanasia the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy - www.webster.com

13. Life saving measures • If a person can’t sustain their own life, should they be artificially kept alive if they • will likely recover shortly? • may recover in a long period? • are not likely to recover in a long period? • are unlikely to recover ever? • Are “Do Not Resuscitate” orders appropriate?

14. Euthanasia • If a person can specify that they don’t want to be kept alive, shouldn’t family be able to specify that if the person is incapable themself? • What about the doctor if the family is not available or able to make a decision? • What if the person could specify? Should the family get involved? Or the doctor?

15. Right to Die

16. If a person can give “Do Not Resuscitate” orders, why can’t they ask to specifically terminate their life? • Does a person have the right to order their own death? • Does a person have the right to assistance in ordering their own death?

17. How to answer the question of “what life should be protected”?

18. Intelligence • Perhaps we should answer the question based on intelligence. After all, humans are the most intelligent species and it is human life we are most concerned about. • But if intelligence is the factor, then a smart dog has more right to life than a brain damaged human. Is this right?

19. Aristotle's kinds • Aristotle broke the realm of living creatures into kinds. Kinds are specified by their ability to interbreed and other differentiating factors. • Does this help us differentiate between animals and humans? • A full grown chimp may be more intelligent than an infant human, but they are of different natural kinds. • Which kinds should receive protection?

20. The Judeao-Christian answer • God created different kinds of creatures (kinds here are quite similar to Aristotle’s kinds). • Mankind is special among the kinds because of the unique gift from God – mankind is made in God’s image where no other kind is.

21. The Atheist answer • How would an atheist answer? • He might support the human right and not the animal right or perhaps both rights. • Either answer would have to look to evolution – either man has this right above the animals since man is more highly evolved, or man shares this right with the animals since we are all the same but for our stage in evolution.

22. Acceptable levels of Risk

23. Acceptable levels of Risk • When is the risk of some individuals property or actions high enough that it warrants the encroachment by a person or persons to lower that risk? • Having a kitchen knife is ok • Having a nuke isn’t. • Where do we draw the line in-between?

24. Acceptable levels of Risk • If someone starts shooting at me, how long must I wait till I can defend myself by shooting back? • Must I wait till they hit me? • Or is just pointing a gun at me suitable risk that I should act in my defense?

25. Capital Punishment

26. Capital Punishment • If humans have the right to life, is it right to put a criminal to death for their crime? • If not, why? • If so, when? What crime is enough? • Can the courts be trusted to find someone really that guilty that we don’t put innocent people to death?

27. Consumer Protection

28. Consumer Protection • Is the government responsible to protect consumers from unsafe products? • Or should “the buyer beware?” • If I buy a product and that product harms me, what can I do? • Can the court force an unsafe product off the market? • Should the government have agencies checking on products and advertising?

29. Drugs

30. Drugs • Pretty much everyone agrees that drugs are harmful, some more than others, but none are beneficial (not speaking of possible medicinal value of a few drugs). • Should we prevent people from taking a substance which harms them?

31. Drugs • Thinking in terms of economics, if supply of something is severely limited but demand remains constant, what happens to the price? • During the prohibition what happened? • crime rose • prices rose • quality declined (some became harmful)

32. Drugs • Isn’t the story the same for drugs? • If a fix was $5 instead of $90, would people have to steal to buy some? • If drugs weren’t so profitable, would dealers sell bad drugs? • If drugs weren’t so profitable, would as many people sell them?

33. The Environment

34. The Environment • Who does the ocean belong to? • Do people pollute their own land? • Why is it that “public” or “community” property is so often polluted or destroyed, and yet private property is well maintained and cared for?

35. Irredentism To whom does land previously taken by war belong to?

36. Land Returned? • Should the land taken by the U.S. government from the Native Americans, be returned? • Should the land taken from Germany and given to Poland after WWII be returned? • Should Taiwan be returned to China? • Who has claim to land possessed by previous wars?

37. Poverty

38. Who’s responsibility are the poor? • Does the government have a responsibility to help the poor? Should it feed and cloth and shelter those who can’t provide for themselves? • If so, with what money shall it do this? • If not, who will? Or should anyone?

39. Taxes cause poverty • Our examination of economics should have shown us that when tax rates rise, people shift money into areas which shelter that money from taxes. • By doing so, less money is available for building business and employing people. • People are poor because they can’t work for themselves, so the government taxes and gives to these people. But the taxes drive away the jobs which would employ the people.

40. War

41. War • When is war right? • Is it always encroachment? • Is their a “just” war? • If attacked, is it right to wage war in defense? • Should this include offensives? • Is defending a neighbor appropriate?

42. War • Is taking sides in another countries civil war right? • Is starting a war appropriate? What if it is because the other country has wronged your country? • Is a war to acquire land right?

43. War • In war, is the killing of an enemy soldier a murder? • Is the killing of enemy civilians murder? • Are “scorched earth” war policies right? • When, if ever, is it appropriate to use weapons of mass destruction?