Reproduction, Rights and Public Policy: A Framework for Assessment

This article seeks to clarify the meaning of "rights" in order to guide policy-making in the area of reproductive rights. At the beginning of the article the author describes the distinction drawn in ethics between positive rights and negative rights. Negative rights are usually given a higher priority by policy-makers than positive rights because negative rights are perceived as being more fundamental and requiring no social resources. The author argues that such a characterisation of negative rights is erroneous. Negative rights are not more fundamental and they do involve social and economic costs-these costs are simply more hidden than those of positive rights. An objectionable consequence of prioritising negative rights is that public resources are spent protecting the freedom of more wealthy and powerful segments of society rather than creating opportunities for the less privileged. Policy-making should therefore not involve prioritising negative rights over positive rights. Instead it should involve considering what freedoms should be promoted and then determining what rights are required to ensure the realisation of these freedoms.