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Let me try to bring together what I have been saying here. I'm am trying to combine Vlastos, Dworkin, and Griffin.

People have certain characteristics that make them persons. These are the basic elements of personhood. It is because of those characteristics that we ascribe the same intrinsic value to each person. To protect that valued personhood we ascribe moral and political rights to individuals. The most basic of those political rights is the right to equal concern and respect from government.

I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I'm throwing it out as one way to bring together several ideas and begin to construct a theory of rights.