Life vs. Feminism

The American Thinker ^ | July 11, 2010 | Andrew Ryan

[Scanian]

I am always amazed by people who attempt to quantify evil in order to justify it. For those wondering what "quantify evil" means, I'm referring to people who argue for an otherwise immoral action on the basis that it is "the lesser of two evils."

Consider for a moment the moral dilemma: Regardless of reason, is it better to murder one person or ten?

I imagine that most people would say it's better to murder one. But now consider what that says. In fact, just look at the words: "better to murder." Now, I will grant you, murdering ten does more observable harm than murdering one -- but does that mean that it is somehow "more immoral" as well? Is the basis of moral judgment in the amount (or degree) of harm it causes? Is the person who murders only one person morally better than the person who murders ten?

I do not see how any reasonable person can claim so. At the end of the day, they are both murderers. They have both committed an evil, immoral act. So how does one go about addressing the moral dilemma?

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

So at the crux of it, she believes that mass murder of innocents is means that justifies the end. How very cold-bloodedly pragmatic of her.
I can’t decide whether or not this actually makes her worse than those who justify abortion by deluding themselves that an unborn child is not really a human being...

[nathanbedford]

http://209.157.64.200/focus/news/1821509/posts

[Quiller]

From the article:

Senior is essentially suggesting that if we have to choose between "killing" and "a threat to feminism," that killing is the lesser of two evils

Wow. If Senior acknowledges that abortion is murder, but preferable to an imagined threat to feminism . . .

All she needs to do is wait for 0's letter inviting her to be a member of his health care panel. She'll fit right in (and help keep costs down by disapproving those pesky high-price procedures for seniors).

[Nosterrex]

This is the Immaneul Kant argument or the deontological ethical position. It does not consider the consequences of an action. If, for instance, a life boat could only hold ten people without sinking, and there were eleven passengers, following Kant, it would be unethical to throw the eleventh person overboard, even if it meant that all eleven would drown. It is not uncommon in war for troops to be sacrificed for the good of the nation. Ethical decisions are not always as easy to make as some would have us think.

[silverleaf]

seems that “health care rationing” falls into the same moral chasm

Uncle Screwtape is smiling, things are going well

[MosesKnows]

committed an evil, immoral act

How does one justify changing a moral wrong into a civil right?

[JayGalt]

I never fail to be amused by black and white thinking, why wouldn’t the passengers take turns to swim or to hang on a cord. When does anyone get put in a situation where choices are as clear cut as you propose? It is easy enough to propose that a choice is forced by events. In the situation you propose one of the passengers might chose to sacrifice him/herself, I cannot feel that the group could decide to oust one passenger and not be making an evil choice. Furthermore who died and left you king? Which of the passengers gets to pick, do they all agree and chose straws?

I see nothing inevitable about the choice being examined in this article. A supposed weakening of the feminist platform vs the life of a baby, excuse me? Your comment is apples vs beets, not even in the ballpark of comparison. A commanding general may have to decide that killing someone is worth the objective or worth the lives that will be spared; a woman carrying or not carrying a pregnancy is not in the same position.

[chesley]

Yeah, I think that it does make her worse. She’s advocating murder with her eyes wide open about what she’s advocating. The others at least have the fact that they are fools as a sort of excuse/

But maybe, just maybe, she’s a little better that the woman who, knowing it’s murder, insists that it’s not, just to advance the murder position. How is Hiter worse?