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From: ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: More on rights
Message-ID: <2644@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Oct-84 18:49:27 EST
Article-I.D.: rocheste.2644
Posted: Sun Oct 28 18:49:27 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Oct-84 08:19:46 EST
Sender: ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
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From: Mike Ciaraldi  <ciaraldi>

There's been a lot of talk about people's rights over their
own bodies in this newsgroup lately.  We accept many limitations
on our personal freedoms already, some out of 
a realization that exercising certain rights can infringe on 
others' rights.

There are also examples of times when we voluntarily give
up certain rights, usually in exchange for someone else
giving something up.

For example, if you run a bakery, you have a right of property
to all the loaves of bread in it.  If someone comes in
and you agree to sell him some bread, and he then gives you
the money and you DON'T give him the bread,
he can go to court and force you to give him either the
bread or a refund of his money.  He would not ordinarily
be considered to have the right to kill you to get the
bread, since the matter is not important enough for his
right to that bread to be greater than your right to your life.
We have probably all heard of situations where people
are forced into doing things they don't want to do, because
they had made a business agreement and then tried to 
back oout of it.  There have been actors and actresses who
were forced to perform  to fulfill a contract
(Suzanne Somers had to put in at least cameo appearances in
some episodes of _Three's Company_ at the end of her
contract); baseball players have been ordered by courts
to play for particular teams, and so on.


How about this for a situation where someone has to give up
his or her right to the sexual use of his or her body?:

Suppose a woman ins in a place such as Nevada where prostitution
is legal.  She goes to a brothel staffed by men
(No, let's make it a one-man operation to make
it even simpler--she goes to a brothel so small that
the owner is also the sole employee)
and, obeying all local ordinances, pays the requested fee
for a night of making whoopee.
The proprietor then says, "Tough luck, sister" and throws her out.
She goes to court, producing her Mastercard receipt, and
demands that she be given what she paid for.

Might not a court rule that she be given legal satisfaction,
by receiving either a refund or the specified sexual emncounter?
And, if for some reason she couldn't get the refund
(e.g. the man didn't have the money), could not the man
be compelled by law to engage in sexual acts with her?

If anyone sees the legal shortcomings of this argument
I would like to hear them, as I am certainly not a lawyer.


Now that that's out of the way, what's the point of it?
This sort of business arrangement doesn't apply in the
cases we have been discussing, e.g. rape, person changing his or
her mind, within a family, etc.
I present it merely as a sample of the ways
in which some of the rights we like to think we have are
not as absolute as we might think. at first glance.

Mike Ciaraldi
ciaraldi@rochester
seismo!rochester!ciaraldi