... is violating those rights. Moral rights can be violated, but they cannot be taken away. But the notion of a non-legal right seems to involve more than just an ordinary moral prescription, as illustrated by Thomson's example of the box of chocolates given to a boy. The boy ought to offer some to his brother, but the brother has no right to any. So to say that someone has a right to something is saying more than merely that they ought to be allowed that thing. The issue is whether there is such a distinction, whether there are such things as rights, or whether the notion of a right even makes sense. If it does make sense, there is the further question of how to decide what is included in the list of rights. For example, the American Declaration of Independence asserted that "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable ...

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