An Evil Guest - Big Questions, Major SPOILERS

Matthew Keeley · 22 Sep 2008, 00:05 · from 2008-September.txt.gz

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From: matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com (Matthew Keeley)
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:05:52 -0400
Subject: (urth) An Evil Guest - Big Questions, Major SPOILERS
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On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 7:08 PM, John Watkins <john.watkins04 at gmail.com>wrote:

> The eugenics connection is, I think correct.  As for no one being
> "heartless" enough to kill a "defective" child post delivery, I direct
> you to noted ethicist Peter Singer.  Money quote:
>
> "''I do not think it is always wrong to kill an innocent human
> being,'' Professor Singer told the rapt audience in Harold Helm
> Auditorium. ''Simply killing an infant is never equivalent to killing
> a person.''"
>

I know of Singer and his ideas - my point was that most people who would
give birth to a child with a genetic defect (instead of aborting it) would
be incapable of killing after it was born, after it was more (as it were)
than an image on a sonogram. Would Wolfe's hypothetical "civil rights"
groups really be looking for permission to kill retarded children five years
after birth? How many people would actually take up on that? But if your
designer baby didn't come out to spec, maybe you'd eventually decide it
wasn't worth it... I think Wolfe's future is pretty dark, once you turn off
the Broadway lights.

-Matt
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