Analysis: an introduction to ethical concepts.

The idea that everyone has a right to life does not mean that it is never permissible to kill. In theory, like any other right it can be overridden or outweighed by other rights and claims; and most of us accept, for instance, that it is forfeit by the armed soldier in battle. But it does mean that only such special and unusual circumstances can justify the act of homicide. In effect it is another and possibly more forceful way of saying that as a general rule it is wrong to kill people. So fundamental a thesis has naturally been defended in many ways. For a long time it was always advanced as a tenet of theology, in the doctrine that a man's life is entrusted to him by God and so cannot legitimately be taken away by anyone else. A modern presentation of this argument is offered by Hiring 1 but obviously it will influence only the relative minority today who accept the associated religious beliefs. An alternative secular argument is proposed by Cranston2 who reasons that every government must secure the subject's right to life (among other things) in order to win his assent to its authority. This is certainly less contentious reasoning but the conclusion is inadequate. The right to life is surely not just a political expedient as this argument portrays it but a fundamental in our scheme of values. We accept that it is properly established as a legal right because the law thus acknowledges what we believe to be a basic and universal moral right.