Introduction
Privacy is an important component of American values regarding human rights. However, there is a lot of controversy surrounding some areas of private lives, such as bodily integrity. On the one hand, privacy allows people to decide what they do with their bodies. On the other hand, there are movements against the recognition of such liberties. Understanding what constitutes the essence of the legal right to privacy and the moral obligation to respect is essential in ascertaining the proper regulation of bodily integrity.
Legal Right to Privacy
The United States is a federation, which means that each state can institute its laws unless there is an overriding federal law. However, there is no federal law acknowledging the right to privacy in the US. Although it is considered to be a constitutional right, there is no mention of it in the Constitution. Jørgensen and Desai (2017) argued that “a right to information privacy was once stated by the Court, but never pursued” (p. 111). Some believe that the Ninth Amendment indirectly allows the right to privacy to exist because it states specifically that the absence of certain rights in the Constitution does not diminish their significance (Majeed, 2021). However, nowhere in the US document is it written that privacy is a human right.
As such, the reason for the absence of the right to privacy lies in the cultural belief in its inherent value. It is accepted as self-explanatory that privacy is important to Americans. Furthermore, the way US laws are written determines the presence of this right without stating it. For example, the First Amendment guarantees the right to association, the Second Amendment protects houses, and the Fifth Amendment allows citizens not to incriminate themselves (Van Camp, 2013). Combined, these regulations respect the right to privacy even though it is not stated per se.
Moral Obligation to Respect Privacy
Since the right to privacy is presumed, people have a moral obligation to uphold it. First, any individual wishing to have their privacy respected has to show the same respect for other people. It is known as the Golden Rule or an ethic of reciprocity. Specifically, the rule states: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Parrott, 2017, p. 70). If people are not willing to show the same respect for other people, privacy will be devalued.
Second, as technology advances, people’s lives become more virtualized. Much of the communication transpires online without the physical presence of people. This implies that according to the Constitution alone, it is possible to violate someone’s digital privacy without any physical intervention. It should be noted that companies and organizations do respect the privacy of users. However, the absence of a law that would be prevalent everywhere in the US creates the possibility of potential violations of privacy. Therefore, the responsibility to respect and protect privacy is placed on people.
Right to Sell One’s Organs
People in the US have no legal right to sell their organs for profit or otherwise. Specifically, it is prohibited by The National Organ Transplant Act (Donor Alliance, 2021). However, some philosophers, including Immanuel Kant, actually believed that selling organs should be permitted (MacDougall, 2019). It is possible to ascertain a moral compromise using the example of blood donations – people who do it receive benefits, even though they put themselves at risk. If people’s goal is to help patients who need transplants, such sales are morally justifiable. However, when there is no compassion involved, and the purpose of selling is profit, there is no moral obligation to extend privacy to selling organs.
Conclusion
Altogether, it should be evident that the way people like to be treated determines how they approach others. The right to privacy is not legally recognized in the US Constitution, but it is enforced by cultural beliefs. However, there is no moral responsibility to allow people to sell their organs for profit alone. The way blood transfusion is legally organized can provide an example regarding fair organ purchases.
References
Donor Alliance. (2021). Can you sell organs in the United States? Web.
Jørgensen, R. F., & Desai, T. (2017). Right to privacy meets online platforms: Exploring privacy complaints against Facebook and Google. Nordic Journal of Human Rights, 35(2), 106-126. Web.
MacDougall, D. R. (2019). Sometimes merely as a means: Why Kantian philosophy requires the legalization of kidney sales. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 44(3), 314-334. Web.
Majeed, M. M. F. (2021). Privacy Types. Randwick International of Education and Linguistics Science Journal, 2(1), 52-58. Web.
Parrott, J. (2017). Al-Ghazali and the golden rule: Ethics of reciprocity in the works of a Muslim sage. Journal of Religious & Theological Information, 16(2), 68-78. Web.
Van Camp, J. (2013). Ethics. Cengage Learning.