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First of all, we have to realize that not every kind of being can have rights. It simply doesn't make sense to talk about the rights of a rock. Some philosophers believe that only beings that have interests can have rights. Others believe that beings that can make choices can have rights. People certainly qualify. On the one hand, people can experience pleasure and joy. They can develop goals and ideals and plan their lives around those goals and ideals. They can develop projects -- everything from having a family to writing a novel. They have enormous capacities that can be developed. On the other hand, the interests of different people often conflict. Partly as a result of those conflicts, people's interests can be threatened. People can be murdered, maimed, tortured, enslaved, and harmed in a thousand ways.

One way to think of moral and legal rights is as a device that can protect people from harm or provide them with needed resources. If we are looking for a good reason to ascribe rights to people, I think that is as good as it gets.

So while it may be that there is no proof that people have or should have moral and legal rights, it seems to me that what I just said provides a good reason for creating a system of rights and ascribing rights to all.