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This thread is not just another abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia, assisted suicide, etc., etc. thread.
It's much simpler than any of that: how do you explain your belief that human life has a special worth? By this, I mean the widely held belief that innocent human lives cannot be snuffed out simply based upon the economic or social "needs" of society.
E.g., we have programs to kill off deer and wolves when they overpopulate, but we would never think to suggest that of our own species in overpopulated habitats. Why, in your opinion, is a human life so particularly special?
Possibly because we understand and relate to humans much better then a different species.
We can't talk to deer and tell them to stop mating, you can do that with people (although admitidly it doesn't always work, but China has a child limit right?)
I think it has to do with communication and understanding. I'm sure theres more to be said on the subject, but those are my guesses as to why we're "special" when it comes to overpopulation.
Self preservation... because if you can easily dispense with one human, you can dispense with any other, which means you too can be snuffed out.
Morbid, but still my opinion.
As to what gives life in general it's worth... I'd have to say it's what you do with it. You either make it invaluable or worthless.
we have the intelligence to use our bodies to the maximum and truly develop societies/cities/whatever and have a civilization and think etc, too hard to describe so throwing a couple key words out
Call me an evil bastard but I am totally against programs like feed the children. First of a good portion of the money is rerouted to the spokesperson. Way to make money by exploiting people's weakness for children. Second I feel that providing (money to pay for food therefore indirectly food) food to an overpopulated country is self defeating. The area will naturally only support so many people. I find it a bad idea to enable more children to survive to create a population explosion. I would be much more likely to support programs to pass out condoms. This would encourage having sex while not having children that can't be supported and die as a result. Less developed nations have higher childbirth rates on average. [Think about it like this for a second before you flame me: there would be less overall suffering for these children if a responsible number of children were created in the first place]
Back to your question I suspect that if deer or wolves began speaking and started legislation to prevent their wholesale slaughter then we might have a different view on them. Personally I think we find human life to be valuable because we are humans. Not very many animals will kill one another (much less eat one another). Humans in the past have done both.
also, we are not all identical, some humans will commit crimes just because, dogs will only be violent if beaten or raised in a bad home etc, humans dont need that although its more likely that way
We're certainly not the only animals that think, but I think we do understand the underlying principles of thought better than other animals. We can see that "thinking" is unique from "kicking" or "talking" or even "dreaming." Humans (probably through cultural shaping) have a basic sense of decency, so we probably wouldn't condone tossing a thousand puppy dogs into a fire just for the hell of it. I think this decency extends to all members of our own species no matter what the cause. Welp, thats my layman's answer.
i think the measure of a persons value is the affect it would have on other human lives.
for example...
Hitler affected millions of lives in a very negative way. the value of his life is very low.
Norman Borlaug who is responsible for crops being able to be grown in the harshest conditions and saving billions of lives would be held at a very high value.
so i think the value of human life is directly linked to the accomplishments, both positive and negative, in their life.
while an unborn fetis has no value, only potential value, it doesn't mean that it is worth anything as it has not done anything to create value.
therefore, human life in general is not special. it's the accomplishments of certain individuals that is special. thus an unborn child has no value in the grand scheme of things because just as easily as they may solve a massive world problem, they can just as easily be the next Hilter or simply add no value to the rest of human society.
This thread is not just another abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia, assisted suicide, etc., etc. thread.
It's much simpler than any of that: how do you explain your belief that human life has a special worth? By this, I mean the widely held belief that innocent human lives cannot be snuffed out simply based upon the economic or social "needs" of society.
E.g., we have programs to kill off deer and wolves when they overpopulate, but we would never think to suggest that of our own species in overpopulated habitats. Why, in your opinion, is a human life so particularly special?
The sanctity of human life just is. We are the only form of life that matters on this planet. An innocent person's life is unquestionably more valuable than a guilty person's.
...therefore, human life in general is not special. it's the accomplishments of certain individuals that is special. thus an unborn child has no value in the grand scheme of things because just as easily as they may solve a massive world problem, they can just as easily be the next Hilter or simply add no value to the rest of human society.
By that definition, wouldn't a severely mentally handicapped person who will always be dependent upon others have less value because he or she is using human and natural resources and not creating them?
PS: powermongor, I'm glad to see that you decided to come back
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