ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the standard argument aimed at showing that any view that implies that we have rights because we are agents, including the agency view, cannot account for the apparent fact that agents can lose rights, because of their own wrongdoing, without ceasing to be agents. A couple of attempts to reconcile the agency view with (apparent) right loss are also criticized. According to the first, our basic rights are conditional on our not violating others’ rights. According to the other, our basic rights are non-conditional and cannot be lost, but conditional rights can be derived from these.
