Rights and Responsibilities

THEMES OF SOCIAL TEACHING #3 - RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Beginning with the right to life, which is "the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights," (Christifideles Laici #38 , John Paul II), each person has certain rights that must be safe guarded.  Among these are the basic needs for a life that recognizes the dignity of each peach person. "We must speak of man's rights. Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services." (Pacem in Terris #11, John XXIII). Thus the right to life extends to the right to those things that are required to  ensure a life of human decency, including health care and adequate living conditions.  Only when these rights are ensured and protected can our society realize its fullest potential. When these rights are in jeopardy it is the responsibility of each person and the state to see that they are provided. This is especially true for those who are ill, elderly or unemployed through no fault of their own. These rights, then, come with corresponding duties to protect the same rights for others. Our right to food, for instance, demands of us the duty to see that the way we eat and the access we have to the abundance of food in our culture does not hinder the access to food for others, particularly the poor and those in developing countries. "Hence, to claim one's rights and ignore one's duties, or only half fulfill them, is like building a house with one hand and tearing it down with the other." (Pacem in Terris #30, John XXIII)