Rights and duties are the sides of the same coin that serve to give rules of coexistence within a community. In this complex and difficult period it is not superfluous to recall that Article 2 of the Constitution recognizes and guarantees the inviolable rights of man, both as an individual and in social formations and to citizens; but in turn, the fulfillment of the mandatory duties of political, economic and social solidarity is required. To complete this perspective, it would be necessary to aim to make rights not only as a privilege of a certain social belonging.

Rights should also be a process of union that fosters personal and societal growth and fulfillment. For this reason I would see the rights of the person above all as rights of citizenship that can constitute what Ralf Dahrendorf called "the chances of life". In short, give all citizens, who are born equal, true equal opportunities, have access to universal health services, have access to basic education with compulsory schooling and higher education in which a significant weight has the merit and again equality before the law and the possibility of being able to defend oneself even if one does not have sufficient means.

Obviously, the field of rights is considerably broader. However, we should look at the complexity of their relationships which make the rights to personal freedom, thought and action apparently contradicting in the light of the scientific knowledge that affects these relationships. In fact, while in the Constitution the duty to health concerns the State, which must guarantee it to the citizens, there is no duty of the citizens themselves to stay healthy, not to get sick. In Europe, there are 700,000 tobacco-related deaths annually. National states can limit tobacco consumption by increasing the cost of cigarettes, but the best results have been obtained with the ban on smoking in public places, which came into force in Italy in 2005.

Thinking of reconciling personal freedom with the duty not to get sick, we must try to stimulate the commitment of citizens to stay healthy. Seat belts and the use of helmets have reduced the degree of freedom that was thought to have, but above all reduced the number of fatalities from road accidents. At the same time we must invent how to force citizens to control blood pressure, high cholesterol and to reduce their weight in order not to burden the costs of health care as well as to maintain good health. The freedom that is part of the rights can conflict with the duty not to get sick. It is that same freedom declaimed in the demonstrations of those who protest because they believe that the vaccine and the restrictions for Covid are harmful to their freedom, ignoring the duty to contribute to the control of the pandemic with concrete actions.

In the book A Brief History of Inequality, Thomas Piketty addresses those inequalities that the state seeks to correct by broadening the sphere of rights. But if we want to concretely put a fixed point in the life of all of us, especially for those who have to build their own future, the main objective that the State, our society must implement is to give equal opportunities that allow us to walk with our strength, with the commitment and the will to be able to say that this is the greatest freedom to which we must aspire.

Antonio Barracca

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