ABSTRACT
Freshly minted "rights" are so common these days that they even pop out of cereal boxes. Expressing every goal, need, wish or itch as a "right" — either fundamental or inalienable — is almost mandatory. The World Food Summit in Rome, sponsored by the United Nations, proposed the "fundamental right to be free from hunger". The United States delegation balked, calling the elimination of hunger a goal or aspiration, not a right to be fed. The first draft of a proposed amendment to the Illinois constitution declared that "a fundamental right of the people of the state is the educational development of all persons to the limits of their capacities". Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz suggests "the right to a bottle of barbiturates for every prisoner who requests it". Fourteen prisoners on death row in California claimed "the right to reproduce" through artificial insemination.
