Loading ...How do you distinguish between moral rights and legal rights?
When a right is claimed to be a moral right,it is a right which people claim they have as human beings. Hence,the term ‘human rights’. Legal rights refers to rights which,it is felt,people should have or actually have in law. A human right can be enshrined in law and so also become a legal right. However,a human right is regarded as a right even when it is not established as a legal right. For example,suppose “freedom of speech”were regarded as a human right. It would continue to be a human right whether or not it was legislated as a legal right. If it became a legal right in a particular country,it would be both a human right and a legal right.
Emma’s rights
Read these two stories about Emma when she was 15 years of age. Discuss the questions that follow.
The way it was:
I know that Mom really worried about me as a teenager,especially about the time I turned
15 when,without realizing it,I started to get really moody. Then,just like Dad,I started to
do weird things. Mom was at her wits end and both of us were really scared. I didn’t know
what was happening. It seemed like I was alone in the world;there was nobody to help me,
not even Mom. I didn’t know how to stop feeling and acting the way I was. It seemed like
some strange powerful force was inside my head making me behave badly and do wild,
violent things I really didn’t want to do.
Mom didn’t know what to do. I think she figured I was going through a phase and would
grow out of it. She might have thought about taking me to the hospital in the city,like Dad,
but she didn’t do it or even talk to me about it.
In the meantime my school work was going down the tubes. I just couldn’t pay attention to
what was going on,so lots of days I would just skip and stay home in my room with the
door shut,doing nothing. Then I dropped out of school altogether. I got a part-time job but
I couldn’t pay attention to the work I was supposed to do and after a few weeks they fired
me. I got another job but lost that one too. I got job after job but I always wound up getting
fired a little while later. After a few months of that I gave up trying to work. I just sat at
home all the time and watched TV. I hardly ever saw anybody except Mom when she got
home from work but we didn’t talk much. Neither of us knew what to say,what was the
matter with me or what to do.
The way it could have been in a transformed system as outlined in ‘Out of the Shadows at Last’:
As soon as Mom began to notice my mood swings she talked me into going with her to the
family health centre where we saw the counsellor again. I also saw the doctor who referred
me to a psychiatrist right away who told me that I was suffering from the same kind of
mental illness that Dad had. She prescribed some medication that helped me control my
moods and behaviour. With the symptoms under better control I was able to concentrate. I
stayed in school and,with the counsellor’s help with day-to-day problems,I did OK. I also
joined a support group made up of other kids my age who were also coping with illnesses of
one kind or another,most of them mental,like mine. My friends stuck by me;they knew I
was sick,not weird!
Question about Emma’s rights.
Were Emma’s rights violated? Does she have a moral right of access to appropriate health care for her mental illness as described in ‘How it could have been’? Does she have a right to mental health services as a human being irrespective of where she lives? Does her ‘right’ depend on whether the services are available where she lives? Is her right dependent on whether it is enshrined in law in her country? Is it a right she shares with every other human being? How might Emma receive appropriate services for her illness even though the services are not enshrined in law?
Does she have a legal right for appropriate health care service? Can a person have a moral right but not a legal right to specific services? Should all moral rights be enshrined in law?
To read her full story about How it was,click HERE.
To read the full story about How it could have been in a transformed system, click HERE.
