Right to life

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

The proposed right

No person or unborn child shall be deprived of life except in defense, or law enforcement, or lawful military combat.

Intent

Killing someone in violation of this right is the crime of murder.

Harming someone in violation of this right may be called various things such as assault, battery, domestic violence, child abuse, medical malpractice, or something else depending on the situation.

Inaction, or a failure to prevent someone from being harmed or killed due to circumstances that the inactive person did not cause, does is not a violation of the right to life. However, inaction may be in violation of law depending on the circumstances.

Discussion

The three major exceptions mentioned in the right to life are defense, law enforcement, and lawful military combat.

Defense

The right to defense allows a person to defend themselves when they are being attacked or threatened with imminent violence. When that defense results, intentionally or unintentionally, in harm or death to the attacker, it is not a violation of the right to life of the attacker. This is because any person can easily choose to not attack or threaten someone with imminent violence in order to avoid being harmed or killed by the victim defending themselves.

Law enforcement

Law enforcement officers are required to comply with laws and regulations designed to grant them the power to enforce the law while maximizing public safety. If a law enforcement officer encounters a person who is attacking them, or threatening them with imminent violence, or who is belligerent and is carrying a deadly weapon, the law enforcement officer is generally authorized by such laws and regulations (not part of this proposal) to use an appropriate amount force to remove the danger from the situation for themselves, for any innocent bystanders, and for the person who is causing the danger who will be the subject of the force. This may cause the subject of that force to be harmed or killed. In a situation like that, law enforcement are not violating the subject’s right to life because any person can avoid being in such a situation by not attacking or threatening law enforcement, by laying down weapons upon the arrival of law enforcement to the scene, and by following lawful commands being issued by law enforcement.

If a person who is a law enforcement officer behaves in a way that is in violation of the laws and regulations for their official duties, they are not acting as a law enforcement officer in that moment and if they harm or kill another person as a result of their unlawful activities they are violating that person’s right to life and must be held accountable.

In other words, the exception for law enforcement is only for legitimate and lawful law enforcement and is not intended to shield law enforcement officers from prosecution for inappropriate acts.

Lawful military combat

If a soldier is acting in defense of themselves, their unit, or the assets they are charged to defend, or acting to kill or harm the enemy following lawful orders and the rules of engagement, they are not violating the other person’s right to life.

If a soldier acts in violation the law, in violation of their lawful orders, or in violation of the rules of engagement, and their acts kill or harm another person, they are violating that person’s right to life.

Pregnant females

The other defense situation that may arise is that a pregnancy is not going well and threatens the life of the mother. The defense exception in the right to life of an unborn child applies only to a situation in which the pregnancy itself poses a threat to the mother’s life, or in which a pregnant mother is attacking or threatening imminent violence against someone else and that person defends themselves against the mother, causing harm or killing the unborn child in the process.

To preserve her own life, a mother may choose to defend herself against the unborn child and abort the pregnancy. In many cases, this is agonizing for the mother but it does allow the mother to safely try again later and have a successful pregnancy. This results in more life since one choice leads to the loss of the baby and the mother (a loss of two), whereas another choice leads to the preservation of the mother’s life and possibly the welcoming of a new baby in the future (a gain of one or more). Please see the topic on abortion for a more thorough discussion.

The term unborn child, as used in this proposed right, means a child in utero, at any stage of development. It also refers to a child developing in an artificial uterus. It does not refer to any embryo that is waiting to be transferred to a uterus, nor any earlier stage of the embryo such as the sperm or eggs before fertilization. The difference is that an embryo in the uterus is on track to developing into a baby, whereas an embryo that is in storage is not on track to developing into a baby.

Since unborn children generally don’t pose a threat to others, the exceptions to the prohibition on harming or killing an unborn child are defense from violence by the mother, or if the mother commits a crime and attacks or threatens law enforcement with a weapon, or if the mother is an enemy combatant or unintentional civilian casualty in war, or if a pregnancy threatens the mother’s life and there is no way to save both mother and unborn child an abortion is considered a defense of the mother.

The prohibition on harming or killing a pregnant female’s unborn child is intended to protect the unborn child from violence by others. The exceptions are important:

* Defense against the mother — if a pregnant female is attacking someone and that person is defending themselves and during the altercation or as a consequence of the altercation the unborn child is harmed or killed
* Law enforcement against the mother — if a pregnant female fires at law enforcement and officers fire back
* The mother is an enemy combatant — in a war all enemy combatants are legitimate targets of violence, even if they are pregnant
* The mother is a civilian casualty — in a war, the military must attempt to minimize civilian casualties but it is not always avoidable; therefore if a pregnant mother is a casualty and therefore the unborn child is a casualty, it is tragic but should not be considered a war crime if in the same situation any other person being harmed instead would not be considered a war crime
* The mother is at risk due to the pregnancy — a doctor performing an abortion is acting in defense of the mother, and this must not be considered a crime; see also abortion in female rights.

The right to life of the unborn child can be in conflict with the mother’s right to parental control and right to defense. The abortion proposal outlines how these rights can be balanced. The references to the right to life of the unborn child in this proposed right are limited to the right to life of an unborn child whose mother did not intend to abort the pregnancy.

Suicide

If a person is intent on committing suicide, people who know about this have an obligation to help preserve the person’s life by influencing them to seek mental health or medical assistance instead. The person may be temporarily physically restrained to ensure they have the opportunity to recover, if that’s possible.

However, a person who is intent on suicide due to unmanageable and uncurable physical pain or inconsolable mental anguish and for whom no further interventions are available, and continues to insist on ending their own life, must be allowed to do so. Forcing someone to stay alive under such conditions of agony, and keeping them restrained to prevent their suicide, also prevents them from deriving any benefit or enjoyment from staying alive. For this reason, after all reasonable and available interventions have been attempted, providing a person with suicide assistance shall be considered as upholding their right to dignity and shall not be considered a violation of their right to life.

Legislatures should enact laws to protect people by defining a process by which the community can ascertain that all reasonable and available interventions have been attempted, and that the person continues to suffer from unmanageable and uncurable physical pain or inconsolable mental anguish, and thereby release a provider of suicide assistance from liability.

Comparison with the United States:

In the United States Constitution, the Fifth Amendment states “No person all be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”.

Comparison with the United Nations:

Article 3 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”

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