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Politics : Evolution
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To: Greg or e who wrote (34976)4/7/2013 6:57:04 PM
From: Solon  Read Replies (1) of 69300
 
"logically you would have to say that killing toddlers is less offensive that killing teens and killing teens is less offensive than killing adults."

No. Personal offense has nothing to do with it. Rights are granted by social agreement in order to address the values of all people in order to prevent the silly and unworkable situation of giving some people more rights than others. A toddler has as much right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as any other person. The value of that toddler to individuals or to society in general is irrelevant to the fact of rights. That is why we give ruthless criminals trials, just as we gave Conrad Black a trial.

All people of all ages have equal rights. A fertilized egg is no more a toddler or any other person than an unfertilised egg or a bale of hay is a person. Persons have a separate existence and they have a sentient existence as an "I" as well as simply an existence we know of as matter. A rock has the same elements of matter as a chicken egg, or any other egg. All existence has the same set of elements in various combinations. But we only grant rights to certain types of matter with certain attributes--the first (of many) of which is individuation.

Pretend we encounter aliens from another planet. Pretend they are NOT human but that they are rational and operate autonomously. Pretend their moral values are somewhat similar to ours. Now would they have the same moral rights as humans? Would you grant them (assuming you had the power) the same moral privilege as humans?

This is the crux. You believe in a fairy tale written by humans that (what a surprise!) gives humans authority and moral privilege over all othe life forms. No wonder you are incapable of respecting the intelligence of living things or the value of sentience. No wonder you want an egg to have the same rights as a toddler or a grandfather. You think that human DNA is what gives privilege. So aliens who were more rational, more sentient, and better moral agents than humans would nevertheless be considered by you to be unworthy of rights because (oh my goodness)--they don't have a set of 23 paired chromosomes! YIKES! We could make pets out of them. HA! HA!
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