Home > Work > Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life Issues
1 " Justices in the United States believe that their duty is to uphold the Constitution, but if they do not understand that the authority of the Constitution itself rests upon the inalienable natural rights of all human beings, then they not only undermine the Constitution, which they are sworn to uphold but also turn themselves into wielders of arbitrary power. Regrettably, this misuse of power occurred in both the Dred Scott decision and in the Roe v. Wade decision (and its subsequent interpretation in cases such as Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Robert P. Casey). "
― Robert J. Spitzer , Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life Issues
2 " The United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights follows the same intrinsic logic, namely, the power behind any constitution or charter is derived from the legitimate authority of a state; the legitimate authority of a state, in turn, rests upon a mandate to promote and protect freedom, justice, and peace; this mandate requires that every state recognize the natural rights and the intrinsic dignity of every human being (because freedom, justice, and peace cannot be achieved without the protection of natural rights). If any state fails to protect the natural rights of human beings, that state loses its legitimacy and its right to govern and can be legitimately rebelled against in the interest of justice, peace, and freedom. "
3 " The idea of a natural right is to preserve life, not to kill it; and a constitutional right cannot supersede the natural right to life. The whole point of natural rights is that they cannot be superseded by the power of the state. "
4 " In order to prevent a violation of the principle of nonmaleficence, every human being must be valued at the highest level of development, because attaching value to any lower level of development risks the possibility of undervaluing that human being (i.e., subjecting him to the classification of being "inferior" or "less than human"). This undervaluation, in turn, allows for a serious violation of the principle of nonmaleficence, that is, justifying killing, slavery, marginalization, isolation, etc., of this human being because the human being is thought to be "inferior" or "less than human. "
