NationStates Jolt Archive

Is there any valid argument that certain adults should inherently have more rights than others?

There are two obvious categories that I can think of:

1) Some mentally handicapped people who do not develop mentally or socially into "adults".

2) Illegal immigrants. Personally I'm all for freedom of movement, but I can see the reasoning behind immigration quotas.

Before people mention criminals, then that's irrelevant, since before committing a crime the criminal had not relinquished any rights and made the choice to commit the crime. So the right to break the law and therefore forfeit other rights is still consistent with the concept of equal rights.

So apart from these exceptions, are there really any valid arguments against granting everyone equal rights?

So apart from these exceptions, are there really any valid arguments against granting everyone equal rights?
No.

'Validity' is subjective. People who believe in the divine right of kings, for example, presumably consider this 'valid'.

(I chose that example in order to avoid the usual 'divine right of Bush' or 'evils of homosexuality'. :roll: )

There are no valid arguments against equal rights. Including the 2 you gave.