Here's a statement to further inflame the debate begun in the foreign policy thread: my life and the lives of my children outside the womb are more valuable than the potential life of some cells that hold no guarantee of survival anyway (given the odds of miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, death, etc). The real possible futures of existing human lives in which scare resources have been invested are worth more than the potential future of an as-yet incomplete creature. The more hostile the environment (war, famine, oppressive, etc) the starker the tradeoff and the more costly to existing humans is the decision to give extra value to potential life.
Posted by: binky at September 7, 2004 07:31 PM | PERMALINKreproductive law and economics!
judge posner would be proud.
Posted by: joshua at September 8, 2004 09:59 AM | PERMALINKin related news, let's see this run on the cover of the Times!
Posted by: joshua at September 8, 2004 10:15 AM | PERMALINKBinky,
Are you arguing that people value life versus potential life differently in harsh conditions, or that society should? One involves leaving the decision up to individuals, one involves the government making a decision for people. Just curious.
Posted by: Baltar at September 8, 2004 11:35 AM | PERMALINKWell, I don't really want to get into this debate, because I've been in others online and find them to be some of the least enlightening and most nasty and they usually end up without stimulating much thoughtful reflection. I was just re-stating the point I made in the other thread, hoping to divert any discussion of abortion from the foreign policy thread to this comment line instead. But, yes, my comment was a response to Morris's post that said people "don't tend to value some people over others based on the number of cells in their bodies, they are all humans at different levels of development." I disagreed, and my statement was to suggest that individuals - especially but not exclusively under harsh conditions - value potential life differently.
Posted by: binky at September 9, 2004 09:12 AM | PERMALINK