no, you CANT lump situations together. we cant just say "well we sent troops into Vietnam so we should send troops into Afghanistan". thats dumb, you look at things at a case by case situation. things are different and have different costs and benefits. When the starting point of a thread (and the continuing argument) is that something that requires a service of someone else can't be a right, then you can lump everything that requires a service from someone else together and say that those should not be rights according to the reasoning. Saying that healthcare isn't a right because it requires doctors automatically means the justice system working as it does isn't a right because it requires judges/lawyers. If make a claim about the definition of a right, then it has consequences for all other things we might consider to be a right.[QUOTE="lazzordude"][QUOTE="11Marcel"]1. Yes, you CAN lump situations like that together. The argument in this thread for healthcare not being a right was that it required services from others. That's the case for firefighters, police officers and judges/lawyers too. The counter argument was that society can decide for itself what's a right and what's not. It seems to me like you just jumped sides.
2. Ok, so you just said that even with good reasoning thrown at you you still believe healthcare as a right is not a good idea. I'm getting the idea that's where every republican/libertarian is coming from.
11Marcel
You can't make an argument for one thing, and then dismiss the same argument you just used for a similar thing. You're saying all vegetables are green, and then when someone shows you a tomato you say we should look at it on a case by case basis. It's called hypocrisy. Unless of course you don't support the OP's original claim that a right can't require the services of others.
I don't understand why you are using those as counterexamples. Say, for the sake or argument, I don't believe anything requiring the service of others is a right. That would extend to the justice system (in the form of lawyers), education (in the form of teachers), etc. I only singled out healthcare because it is very relevant at the moment. I agree with what a few others have said in this thread- it is not a right but people like to throw the phrase "healthcare is a right" around pretty carelessly.
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