I’ll speak to the humans have value part, but just briefly saying someone diagnosed with depression is just being lazy is bigoted against people with serious mental health diagnosis and is the same & just as gross as saying someone diagnosed with a physical condition like cancer is lazy.
You may be interested in learning about Alan Gewirth if you haven’t had the chance yet.
He argued for universal human rights based on our inherent agency. The argument is laid out better elsewhere, but a short version is something like this:
We humans have agency, that is desires & goals to accomplish. For a child it can be as basic as I’m hungry -> eat food, but this is something that gives us normative structure (you should do a thing). For example if I have the goal of graduating from school I should attend classes, I should do homework, etc.
Every goal you wish to accomplish can have different requirements, but two that are always present are the freedom to pursue your goals and the wellbeing to accomplish tasks necessary to achieve your goals. So you would need the right to freedom and wellbeing to pursue and achieve your goals.
Because your agency gives you the right to freedom and wellbeing to pursue and accomplish your goals, then everyone’s agency grants them the same rights.
If you accept the 3 items above then violate other people’s freedom and wellbeing then you would be objectively wrong and inconsistent in your beliefs, because you believe you have rights by agency but deny those same rights to others by the same reason (agency) they hold.
I’ll speak to the humans have value part, but just briefly saying someone diagnosed with depression is just being lazy is bigoted against people with serious mental health diagnosis and is the same & just as gross as saying someone diagnosed with a physical condition like cancer is lazy.
You may be interested in learning about Alan Gewirth if you haven’t had the chance yet.
https://iep.utm.edu/gewirth/
He argued for universal human rights based on our inherent agency. The argument is laid out better elsewhere, but a short version is something like this:
We humans have agency, that is desires & goals to accomplish. For a child it can be as basic as I’m hungry -> eat food, but this is something that gives us normative structure (you should do a thing). For example if I have the goal of graduating from school I should attend classes, I should do homework, etc.
Every goal you wish to accomplish can have different requirements, but two that are always present are the freedom to pursue your goals and the wellbeing to accomplish tasks necessary to achieve your goals. So you would need the right to freedom and wellbeing to pursue and achieve your goals.
Because your agency gives you the right to freedom and wellbeing to pursue and accomplish your goals, then everyone’s agency grants them the same rights.
If you accept the 3 items above then violate other people’s freedom and wellbeing then you would be objectively wrong and inconsistent in your beliefs, because you believe you have rights by agency but deny those same rights to others by the same reason (agency) they hold.