Christian Wolff: Natural right 6 – Not yet living

From dead Wolff turns to those not yet living. Just like with the former, Wolff notes first that future generations do not have any rights and hence cannot acquire any property. This lack of rights extends, according to him, even to foetuses that are still in the uterus. Thus, if I say that I transfer some right to an unborn foetus, this isn’t literally true. Even so, Wolff adds, my statement still creates an obligation that I will transfer the right to the baby when they have been born.

More generally, Wolff thinks that although the unborn cannot have any proper rights, they can have some sort of quasi rights in the sense that they will acquire rights when they are born. Thus, there can be an agreement that a certain right will be passed on to the descendants of the person who currently has that right, after this person died, even if these descendants do not yet live. In the case of a foetus in the uterus, this quasi right cannot be removed and it has an equal juridical status as a promise that is supposed to be fulfilled if some condition occurs. Thus, if a thing is given to an unborn child and then delivered in my possession, I am expected to hand the thing over to the child, once they have been born.

An interesting case occurs, when a person relinquishes a right that was supposed to pass on to some unborn people. Wolff insists that such a renunciation is impossible, if the unborn person in question is already a foetus, but possible, if they are not even that. Furthermore, Wolff notes, the renunciation could also be done in such a manner that the quasi expectation of receiving the right when born would remain with the unborn people.

Wolff thinks that we also have some duties toward future generations, and indeed, that we should love and care for the generations to come. Such duties include that we must make sure that scientific truths and arts discovered by us are received by future generations by spreading new knowledge. Moral virtue is also something Wolff thinks should be transferred to future generations, for instance, by writing down examples of virtuous behaviour and teaching them to young people. Finally, Wolff suggests also that the happiness of future generations should be taken care of by e.g. planting fruit trees.