Human Rights, Part 2

So, let's see where we can get on this front. In order to avoid confusion, I will attempt to establish the convention of using "right" only in the sense of "a right", as opposed to "right and wrong." I will attempt to use synonyms whenever I desire the latter definition.

To start with, we should define what it means to have rights. A right, by definition, is something that you are entitled to at all times and without regard to any circumstances, correct? It is something that should never be taken away, regardless of any conceivable excuse. Then, we have certain modifiers such as civil rights or human rights. These, presumably, are rights which we are entitled to by virtue of possessing the appropriate quality; civil rights pertain to anyone who is a citizen and human rights pertain to whoever is a human. These rights cannot be taken away, so long as the person in question retains the appropriate quality - if a given person ceases to be a citizen, they are no longer entitled to civil rights, and correspondingly, if a given person ceases to be human, they are no longer entitled to human rights. For all practical purposes, this latter condition will never apply, so we may consider "human rights" to be those rights which it is wrong to take away from anyone, at any time, under any circumstances. This is the only definition I can think of that really makes sense; if anyone has another one or a modification to this one, feel free to add it.

I am aware that this runs contrary to the accepted use of the word in such cases as "rights" to free speech, assembly, arms-bearing, etc, because those "rights" can in fact be taken away; my contention is essentially that this is an improper use of the word. If it can be taken away, then why was it being called a right in the first place? The word becomes largely meaningless in this context.

This is one reason why I was hoping to avoid this discussion earlier - obviously with this definition, we will end up with very few human rights to consider, since there aren't a whole lot of things that people are unconditionally entitled to. I really don't think I can come up with a single one that is invariably acceptable, although the right to life is probably the strongest contender.