I N T R O	Intro to Utility
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There is a tension between rights and utility. When John has a right to do something, the fact that doing it will cause more harm than good is not by itself sufficient to justify preventing him from doing it. We can put this another way by saying that if doing something would violate Mary's rights, then the fact that it would cause more good than harm is not by itself sufficient to justify doing it.

Rights can be seen as limitations on what can be justified by appeals to utility or the general welfare. We do not, for example, make older people give their bodily organs to younger people who would benefit from them. Despite its net overall utility, we all agree that such a policy would violate the rights of the elderly.

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