Propositions have implications; it's that simple. One of the implications of denying that a fetus has a right to life is that no one has a right to be born. In other words, none of us has a right to be here. One thing that has bothered me about the Left (Democrats in particular) is that they assert, by implication, that none of us has a right to be here while at the same time asserting that we have rights. I have long wondered how a leftist would answer the question, "How, since no one has a right to exist, can anyone have any rights at all? How can I, who have no right to be here, have a right to--among other things--health care? If I have no right to be alive, how did I acquire a right to anything that preserves my life?"

Pro-life advocates are wont to say that a fetus is a human being from the moment of conception. Humans have rights; therefore the fetus has rights. Among the rights that humans have is the right to life. No problem with the logic there. The problem is with the premise that a fetus is a human being from the moment of conception. But it's not the problem I have taken up here, so I lay it aside. The point is simply that our having any rights at all is not a problem for pro-life advocates. The same cannot be said for pro-choice advocates.

Consider the position of pro-choice advocates: none of us has a right to be born, a right to become human. We have no right to be here. Now consider the position of the Left: we (who have no right to be here) have, while we are here, rights. A woman, who has no right to be here in the first place, has a right to an abortion. One simply has to wonder how we, who have not even a right to exist, no right even to be born, acquire a right to anything at all, much less a right to have an abortion. Even worse than that: if we have no right to exist, no right to be born, no right to be alive--how do we have any of those things that people call "Human Rights"?

I suppose one could say that it is true we don't have a right to be here, no right to be born, no right to exist. However, existence may be such that although we don't have a right to it, we do have rights once we get it. In other words: No, we don't have a right to exist, but existence--whether we have a right to it or not--comes with rights. Having come into existence, having been born, whether we have a right to it or not, gives us certain rights; existence means having rights.

So there it is. Although no fetus has a right to become human, once it does so (i.e., once it is born) it has rights. Being human means having rights. I suppose that works--until you try to account for someone like Peter Singer, who asserts that non-human animals also have rights. Think of it: non-human animals have rights. Question: is not the fetus, before becoming human, a non-human? It is if, as some evolutionists argue, phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny. If so, then a fetus is a non-human animal; and as a non-human animal the fetus surely has rights. Of course, we know that the Left are not about to take away a woman's right to an abortion on the grounds of animal rights. And so we also know that whether or not a fetus is human is irrelevant to the question. For the Left, a woman has a right to an abortion whether the fetus is human or not, whether the fetus is an animal or not: the fetus may be the only animal without rights.

This brings us back to the question I raised above. The fetus--whether human or not, whether animal or not--has no rights. By implication we--as former fetuses--have no right to be here. So then, how do we come to have any rights at all if we've no right even to exist? Where precisely does John Kerry get off lecturing us on the fact that we are the only advanced nation in which health care is not a right? Where exactly is he coming from when he asserts that health care is not only for the rich and the connected, but is a right for every American?

We've already covered the possibility of saying that, although we have no right to become human, once we do so we have rights. This argument is shown for the vanity it is by noting that the same people who assert that animals have rights do not extend rights to the fetus, which is, at the very least, an animal. So, obviously, being or not being human has nothing to do with having rights.

I suppose we could slice the pie into humans and non-humans such that the fetus, although not human, is (as a fetus) not protected even by animal rights, and neither are non-human fetuses. No fetus, of whatever sort, has any rights. Even so, this is still to say, with respect to humans and existence, that we have no right to exist (i.e., since no fetus has a right to develop into a human). So we are still left with the question: How, since we have no right to exist, do we come by any right to anything at all?

The best answer to the question will probably be something like, "Well, we may not have a right to exist, but once we come into existence we acquire rights to those things that preserve and enhance our existence." So, although we have no right to come into existence, once we do come into existence we have a right to continued existence and a right to those things which make our continued existence possible. The problem we have here is in knowing just how we come to have rights. For all their talk about rights, the Left do not spend much time explaining how we come to have rights. (The Right, for the most part, assert that rights are God-given. This is an article of faith, of course, so the Left, if they have any answer at all, probably won't offer this kind of answer)

Here then is a paradox of leftism: We have no right to be here, no right to have made it through gestation, no right to have been born, and therefore no right to exist. By extension we have no rights to those things which make our continued existence possible. Ultimately, the logical implication of the Left's position on abortion, ironically, is that a woman has no right to an abortion. How could she have? Having no right to exist in the first place, she can't logically claim any rights at all.

It will be clear that throughout this essay, I have made a great assumption. (And what else could it be but an assumption?) I have assumed that our not having a right to exist means having no rights. If we have no right to be here, then we have no rights while we are here. In other words, existence in and of itself confers no rights. We could just as well assume the opposite state of affairs: Existence means having rights; to live is to have rights. But now we are making two assumptions. The first is that rights exist. The second is, of course, that we have them. But it is difficult to see how we can have rights if rights do not exist. Our own existence is clear to us, although we cannot prove it. But do rights exist? This will be the topic of my next blog.

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