-- But I really shouldn't have to explain this elementary stuff, should I?
The point is not that life, or the right to it, is given TO anyone. The point is that life, or the right to it, are given AWAY from someone, namely, the one whom the Declaration says has received such a right as an unalienable endowment.
Poorly expressed, but 'given away' means taken. -- You, -- and the Bush/Ashcroft 'justice dept' want to take away the people of Oregons right to end their lives in dignity, with the assistence of a doctor. -- That is the point here.
unalienable
adj : incapable of being repudiated or transferred to another; "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" - posted by DJQ -
How lame. -- Your dictionary cannot win this argument for you. -- In any case;
--- Even you would agree that the right to self defense is unalienable, correct? - Yet we delegate large portions of that right to our police forces, & army, - for instance. Correct? -- And, we have an unalienable right to so delegate and transfer limited power to government, correct?
- Thus, you have a contradiction inherent in your definition. - Can you explain?
I'm sorry that you find it "lame" to attempt to settle the question of the meaning of a key word in our discussion.
In any case; --- Even you would agree that the right to self defense is unalienable, correct? - Yet we delegate large portions of that right to our police forces, & army, - for instance. Correct? -- And, we have an unalienable right to so delegate and transfer limited power to government, correct?
- Thus, you have a contradiction inherent in your definition. - Can you explain?
Delegating the exercise of a right is not alienating that right. When I delegate, I make someone my instrument in the exercise of my right. When I alienate a right, I give up, or attempt to give up, my claim on the object of the right.
The unalienable right to transfer limited power to government is an unalienable right subordinate to, because instrumental to, the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the other fundamental rights, self-defense among them. The unalienable right to form governments follows from the unalienable rights enumerated in the Declaration because it is a necessary means to securing those rights.
Perhaps you could try to lay out more clearly what contradiction you find in this, observing the fact that delegating a right is a means of securing it, not of alienating it. If I speak of delegating my right to life to a doctor, for example, it can only mean that I charge him with securing that right.