Is it ok to kill a newborn?

[Jessica23]

Not an attempt at humour, I find it interesting the reaction on the forum to the original article, i could imagine a early 18th century harleyman frothing at Swift.

 

Well, quite. But it is satirical, which has some kind of humorous intent whether you meant it or not. Black humour at its best.

[Harleyman]

Yes, s/he is. It's a reference to Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal.

 

Being part Irish myself I would have had a better suggestion for the poor Irish in Swift's time.

Kidnap a few rich absentee English landlords, boil em alive in big pots of water and serve em on platters along with the staple diet of the Irish poor... the good old potato.

[Chris_Sleeps]

I don't agree with her for many reasons, one being that she doesn't attribute a moral status to a newborn. She's stuck herself with the Sorites Paradox - how many days does a baby have to live before it is "a moral being"?

 

Link

 

The newborn and the fetus are morally equivalent

The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.

 

Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’. We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her. This means that many non-human animals and mentally retarded human individuals are persons, but that all the individuals who are not in the condition of attributing any value to their own existence are not persons. Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life. Indeed, many humans are not considered subjects of a right to life: spare embryos where research on embryo stem cells is permitted, fetuses where abortion is permitted, criminals where capital punishment is legal.

[ratter71]

Well, quite. But it is satirical, which has some kind of humorous intent whether you meant it or not. Black humour at its best.

 

I know it was satirical, I meant I wasnt trying to be funny:hihi:

[Jessica23]

I know it was satirical, I meant I wasnt trying to be funny:hihi:

 

I don't care if you were trying or not, referencing Swift on this forum is its own brand of humour...*wanders off*

[Frank Sidney]

You don't seem to be able to grasp that the talk about killing newborns was in a theoretical and philosophical framework.

 

Minerva isn't suggesting that we kill newborns, she's asking questions in the persuit of intellectual enquiry and knowledge.

So to talk about raping a child would be acceptable?

[Harleyman]

I know the huiman species is quite capable of killing it's babies.

We know the Nazis did it wholesale and even in our big modern day so called civilized environment it's not that unusual to see on the news that a baby's body was found in a dumpster someplace.

 

In that way we have some relation to bears

[Plain Talker]

"Not viably independent" is the problem; there is no fixed point at which a foetus becomes viably independent. Some wouldn't manage it at thirty-four weeks; some would survive at twenty.

 

You can even argue that, since humans are dependent on their environment to keep them alive in exactly the same way that an embryo is, the term applies either from conception right through until eventual death, or else never applies at all.

 

The government fixed the definition of "viable" as being about 24 weeks, with regard to abortion.

 

We do know that even if a child is born and survives a premature birth, s/he can still be left severely impaired, and catastrophically brain-injured.

 

A friend lost her baby boy at 10 days old after a 25-weeks' gestation delivery.

 

My Aunts son survived a 26-week gestation birth weighing just 2lbs 2 oz. (he's a strapping lad of 27, now)

 

The difference of a weeks' gestation between the two boys' deliveries apparently made a big difference.

[Mr Gobby]

No it isn't. murder is murder whether the victim is 2 days old or 200 years old IMO!

 

Rich .People have opinions, it is all part of forum life .Why must you consider anyone that has an opinion to be loopy ,it seems to be YOUR trademark.

[quisquose]

Because the very thought of killing a newborn indicates a very unhealthy mind

Abnormal thought process...... Obsessivee Compulsive Disorder (The intrusion of unpleasant and unwelcome thoughts)

 

The woman needs counseling

 

... and yet you yourself have engaged in debate about the very thought of killing a newborn.

 

...... and now so have I.