except...what is a human right? It doesnt exist 'in the world', its existence is not tangible, we cannot point to anything and say 'there! that's the human right!'. If they exist, they exist as an invention of humans - and indeed you will find a huge number of people using the same sorts of arguments as you make above precisely in favour of extending human rights to non humans such as squirrels! If they are a human invention, then we can decide (reasonably) to whom they should and shouldn't apply. We can also decide whether certain rights (e.g. bodily autonomy) outweigh others, and if so in which circumstances.
When you say that "something like our human nature gives us equal rights" is the CLEAREST answer I would have to push back. There is nothing remotely clear about the phrase 'something like our human nature.' These are words that mean whatever we want them to mean - they just take the question back a stage (what is human nature?).
Of course, we wrestle with similar issues in hospital settings. The long term coma patient, the brain dead patient, the patient in a PVS - we debate about whether or not it is ok to unplug them from life support, knowing that this action will cause something we might describe as 'death' (of course, we might argue that they are dead anyway, in the way that actually matters). We argue whether they still have human rights, or, if they do, whether it is ok to suspend or withdraw them (as we do with prisoners and those condemned to execution).
Ultimately, your explanation of what makes someone a person is as, if not more, unclear than the pro-choice examples you give. Resorting to some sort of undefined sense of human nature seems suspiciously close to claiming a soul. Phrases like 'biologically human' just beg the question.
Finally, it is arguably reductive to claim that there is just one sufficient condition for human rights (especially in light of my comments above). There is no reasonable philosophical reason why it cannot be a set of necessary conditions required - and that having 'only some' of these is not sufficient to grant human rights.
When you say that "something like our human nature gives us equal rights" is the CLEAREST answer I would have to push back. There is nothing remotely clear about the phrase 'something like our human nature.' These are words that mean whatever we want them to mean - they just take the question back a stage (what is human nature?).
Of course, we wrestle with similar issues in hospital settings. The long term coma patient, the brain dead patient, the patient in a PVS - we debate about whether or not it is ok to unplug them from life support, knowing that this action will cause something we might describe as 'death' (of course, we might argue that they are dead anyway, in the way that actually matters). We argue whether they still have human rights, or, if they do, whether it is ok to suspend or withdraw them (as we do with prisoners and those condemned to execution).
Ultimately, your explanation of what makes someone a person is as, if not more, unclear than the pro-choice examples you give. Resorting to some sort of undefined sense of human nature seems suspiciously close to claiming a soul. Phrases like 'biologically human' just beg the question.
Finally, it is arguably reductive to claim that there is just one sufficient condition for human rights (especially in light of my comments above). There is no reasonable philosophical reason why it cannot be a set of necessary conditions required - and that having 'only some' of these is not sufficient to grant human rights.