Do rights exist?

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

42. "I'm afraid that I ..."

Is what we call an idiom. It does not indicate actual fear on the part of the speaker. Also, in the link to my potted biography I gave previously, I say that I am a member of what the late Bill Mauldin called, "the Benevolent and Protective Brotherhood of Them What Has Been Shot At". Speaking as a member of the brotherhood, I can say that there is probably something wrong with someone who does not feel at least some fear in combat. (The second combat experience is probably more fearful than the first, interestingly enough.)

You now seem to be somehow equating morality with sacrifice. Yet if I forbear to rape a woman, that is acting morally, but certainly involves no sacrifice.

I want to discuss the place of reason in ethics. You seem to want to talk about everything else.