How are Legal, Moral, and Human Rights Related?

Ethics
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Institution:
Ethics
Introduction
It remains a widely accepted principle that all men are created equal to possess fundamental rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. This ideology gives rise to the opinion of Ethics within the human society. In this regard, this paper discusses opinions of people's rights and the moral element involved as a result of upholding these rights. All the same, it is also understood that people from different backgrounds tend to differ in the way they define and or express the mentioned moral rights despite them being of a universal nature.
A "Right"
In simple terms, a right refers to an individual's entitlement to receive a desired kind of treatment by others and the community in general. (Fagan, 2014). It refers to a set of ethical principles to be followed within the setting of any interactions between or among persons as a function of desired behavior or appropriate action.
Put another way, a right is a particular rule in regards to what is allowed or correct for people to do and what is owed to them by others and the society in general and in accordance to standards of social conventions or definite legal systems. This gives rise to the philosophy of legal and moral rights. Concisely, "rights structure the form of governments, the content of laws and the shape of morality as is currently perceived" (Fagan, 2014).
Legal Rights
For the leadership administration created by man to govern people's behavior and interactions within the society, legal rights are created. These are a product of legislation passed to forms the ‘laws of the land'. Such rights are alienable and can represent forms of inequality in addition to varying among nations, regions or places. As such, they can be taken from a person against his or her will as per circumstance. Additionally, legal rights cannot exist before passing of a law and the organizational body responsible for its creation determines its limits and validity. An example in this case would be a child's right to receive ample education.
Moral Rights
These form a category of rights that are natural in origin and universal in application. Moral rights need to be discovered or perceived as opposed to being formulated. As such, pan out as being a form of moral realism, which calls for the realization of equality among human beings. Furthermore, Moral rights cannot be alienated in the sense that they cannot be denied to a person, unless resulting from their consent. Still, the existence and validity of Moral Rights cannot be associated with any legislation or legislative body. An example in this case could be the rights of Blacks in apartheid South Africa to participate in political activities and not to be discriminated in terms of color.
Human Rights
The term ‘Human Rights' refers to an encompassment of all fundamental rights that persons are entitled to, just for the sake of being human beings. As such, they are considered universal rights with an egalitarian perspective.
Even so, it is important to note that Human Rights are conceived as constituting booth legal and moral rights even though one cannot decline to note that the two can never be exclusively identifiable. However, there still exists a level of debate and uncertainty in regards to specific contents and justifications of the doctrine. Same still, Human rights cannot be limited by the validity and or scope of legal rights but they identify with qualities of moral rights largely. As a result, there exist limited inclinations to the idea that Human Rights ought to be legally recognized. This has led to situations whereby proponents of Human rights relentlessly fight for their validity in nations that disregard their legal or rather formal acknowledgement.
Features that describe Moral Rights
* Moral Rights are Natural: they are not formulated or created by governments or legislative bodies but are as part of natural human identity.
* Moral Rights are Universal: they do not change from place to place or nation to nation.
* Equal: Same for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or physical ability
How we know people have rights
According to Fieser, (2008), "a right is a justified claim against another person's behavior." Owing to the concept of "Ethics", human beings behave in ways that are subject to their convictions in regards to right and wrong actions. Such moral convictions occur normally and ordinarily but they express a fundamental comprehension of how people know they have rights. Furthermore, people can conceive the rights they have by relying on traditions passed down from earlier generations. These traditions clearly indicate a distinction between right and wrong actions.
A comprehension of natural law can aid people greatly in becoming conscious of their rights. As people interact with the natural environment, they realize and familiarize with expectations of human nature from a moral perspective.
Utilitarian View/Basis of Moral Rights
Jeremy Bentham, an 18th Century British philosopher founded the concept of Utilitarianism. It puts forward the belief that human beings express a principle of utility by the desire or motivation to avoid pain and gain pleasure or happiness. As such, behavior or actions expressed by members of a society are correct and appropriate if they result in most happiness (favorable outcomes) for the most number of people in addition to offers of equality. This establishes a guiding principle (The principle of Utility) in regards to the determination of right and wrong. However, a level of controversy arises when it comes to establishing resolve of the kinds of happiness and or pleasure to be desired. This is well depicted in the published works of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The former maintains that there exists no divergence between prin...