Implications of a right to life

If you have a right to life, and your mind is your means of survival, it is your duty to use your mind to live to the best of your ability.

This does not mean that if you have a gift for cheating and lying that you should be allowed to use those gifts to cheat others.  This would be an example of violating the rights of others to get what you want.

However, anything you do to sustain your life should be yours to keep as long as you didn't violate someone else's rights to get it.

A common argument is one that says that fine, sustinence, but what about more than that?  Shouldn't you be forced to give more than a certain amount to others who have less?

In a word- NO.  Our first premise is that no one has the right to demand the life of others for their own life.  The right to live as you rationally see fit is necessary for you to have a right to live.

Also, anyone or any organization that would distribute that to someone else would be by nature violating your right to survive as best you can according to the tools you have.

They are in effect causing you to work as a slave in order to support someone else.

According to Ayn Rand, there are only two ways in which people exchange goods and services:

1) by mutual trade as equals (this includes time for wages, money for goods, or services for emotional fulfillment)

2) by force - this renders one party slave to the other and says that the one being forced to give is less of a person than the one who is receiving.

Why should someone be forced to part with their possessions simply because you don't have it?  That is irrational.

Rational thought as a guide for actions

I'm interested in creating a moral philosophy whereby rational behavior is used as a guide for moral actions.

When I say rational, I mean behavior judged by its merits and the ends it causes rather than by the emotions it evokes or whether it feels nice.  For instance, it would not feel nice to amputate a gangrenous limb, but to do so creates a better end for the body than to let it continue.

This is the first time I have tried to express these principles outside of a classroom and I will try to do so using different schools of thought as justification for the conclusions I draw or for possible explanation for differing conclusions that others may draw.

For my examples I will try do examine current affairs as well as classic postulates and where real-life examples are used I will try to ferret out the ultimate rather than proximate causes of the situations.

I will welcome any reasoned response to my writing, and would rather have someone disagree with me with clear and rational arguments for disagreeing with me, than to agree with my in a mindless chanting sort of way.

Please avoid reducto ad nazi, responses as well as using 7337 if you do have something to say.

The assumption here is that someone is reading this and of course, that is a huge assumption.

Thanks