Children, Rights and Nursing Concerns

Abstract

Although philosophers have been commenting on matters of morality for several thousand years, it is only within the last few hundred years that a clear philosophical argument has been developed around the concept of moral rights. Writings on the nature of moral rights, what they are, who can lay claim to them, whom they benefit and what difference their existence makes to social morality — have been the preoccupation of Western philosophy since the time of John Locke (1632–1704). As Almond (1991) notes, although ‘of comparatively recent vintage linguistically, rights belong to a tradition of ethical reasoning which goes back to antiquity. In relation to this tradition the overtones of the notion are legal rather than ethical.’ Needless to say, this interest in rights, be they human, civil, political or social, is neither the sole prerogative of moral philosophers nor their sole interest. The literature on universal human rights has a long and fascinating history, the roots of which can be traced back to the doctrine of natural law, although it is only relatively recently that the rhetoric concerning rights and the popular understanding of them has entered the public domain. Today, therefore, it is not unusual to hear quite unsophisticated individuals demanding ‘their rights’ to parenthood, better housing, sovereignty and such like (Lumpp, 1982; Hart, 1984 [1967]).