How do you answer the objection that society has an interest in encouraging and promoting stable family structures?

How do you answer the objection that prohibiting same-sex marriage unfairly discriminates against gay men and lesbians?

Does this mean that we owe more to our fellow citizens than to other human beings? On what grounds? Why do we owe more to a stranger born in our country than we do a stranger who happened to be born somewhere else?

How do you answer Aristotle’s claim that the point of politics is more than just mutual security and economic exchange? Isn’t the purpose of politics to encourage civic virtue and promote the common good?

But David Letterman is unusually talented at making people laugh. Doesn’t he deserve to make more money? Shouldn’t compensation track talent and effort? Otherwise, what would be the use of developing one’s talents and making an effort?

But isn’t it unfair for a police officer or a government official to treat someone differently merely because of the color of their skin? How do you answer the objection that racial profiling is an example of unjust discrimination?

But how can the shopkeeper’s action lack moral worth if, in the end, he does the right thing by not cheating his customer?

But thousands of people die every year waiting for a kidney transplant. Shouldn’t it be up to you to decide what to do with your own body? What if you are poor and need the money, and the buyer will die without the kidney? Isn’t a sale the best thing for both of you?

But doesn’t the idea of ownership mean that I may do whatever I want with what I own, including myself? Is the philosopher Robert Nozick wrong in claiming that “the central core of the notion of a property right in X . . . is the right to determine what shall be done with X”?