Gift of life versus right to life

[sallybutler]

I was wondering, given an thread in Moral Theology, when did the gift of life become the right to life? Is there a difference?

In my mind there is. God gave me the gift. Until He decided it was time for me to be created, I didn’t exist, could not exist.

A right to life somehow makes me think of the idea that all souls have already been created and are just waiting for a body.

Any ideas on the subject?

 

[ynotzap]

I was wondering, given an thread in Moral Theology, when did the gift of life become the right to life? Is there a difference?

In my mind there is. God gave me the gift. Until He decided it was time for me to be created, I didn’t exist, could not exist.

A right to life somehow makes me think of the idea that all souls have already been created and are just waiting for a body.

Any ideas on the subject?

It would seem logical to me that when God created the first human being, that He established that right to life, for all “rights” come from God essentially. The right to life is called an"inalienable" right, a right that no one can take away from us, God ordained it when He created human life It proceeds from Him, and it is by His will that we have it. It is both a gift, and once given, it becomes an essential right to have it. God wills our existence. The human soul is directly created by God, and infused into the body of each person at the time of the person’s creation, the soul did not exist before that. The soul is what makes the body the body, it is called the “form of the body” We come into creation as a “fertilized ovum” called " the conceptus. And the soul causes all the activity in the conceptus to mature into fully developed human over time.

 

[sallybutler]

But is it not the gift of God’s will that gives us life? We have no right other than thru that gift.

And maybe that is another way of describing the issue. Could I come into existence if God didn’t will it? Right implies that it happened outside of God’s will, gift implies that God willed it.

 

[chasingcars]

I think life is a gift from God and right to life means that no person is allowed to take it away from you. Ever. So no one has right to life* before* they’re conceived/created but after they have been given the gift of life they do.

 

[bobballen_18]

Ah OP, you are a fellow Kansan! I don’t live in Kansas right now, though I live right across the border in KCMO, but I grew up in Kansas and will always consider myself a Kansan!

But is it not the gift of God’s will that gives us life? We have no right other than thru that gift.

And maybe that is another way of describing the issue. Could I come into existence if God didn’t will it? Right implies that it happened outside of God’s will, gift implies that God willed it.

I don’t have anything extremely insightful to add to the conversation…but IMHO, I think you are correct that it is the will of God that gives us life, in the sense that that it is all a part of God’s Divine Providence. And that second sentence, “we have no right other than thru that gift” I think is correct as well - I think our right to life is intimately connected with the fact that our life is a gift from God.

I’m not as clear/with you on your last sentence/question. I don’t think saying that life is a right does imply it happened outside of God’s will. I rather think the opposite is true - I would say that because God did will each and every one of us into existence, each and every one of us has a right to life. That is, basically what I said above - our right to life comes directly from the fact that God willed to give us life (give us the gift of life). I don’t see how “right” and “gift” are necessarily contrary to each other as you seem to be getting at. Everyone exists has a right to life because they have been given the gift of life from God. I hope I’m making sense in my thoughts.

 

[GEddie]

Life is a right because without it no other rights apply.

Although the idea may be purely American, our national founders held that certain rights were given by God. Life is at the head of those rights because it makes all other rights meaningful. Those who no longer hold life, or never held it, cannot hold or make use of any other right.

ICXC NIKA