From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@msx.upmc.edu)
Date: Thu May 16 2002 - 13:16:04 MDT
Reason [mailto:reason@exratio.com]
Wrote:
Societies meandered foward just fine back in the day when
children were
property and could be killed, maimed or whatever else with
few resulting
consequences. Were there vast pits filled with murdered
children? Of course
not.
### Actually, you are wrong. One of the ways of identifying
an ancient Roman brothel is to look for a midden (compost heap) with an
unusually large collection of infant skeletons. The old, traditional way of
dealing with unwanted offspring of slaves and prostitutes was to wring their
necks and dump them in the backyard. One of such middens was recently
unearthed in Ashkelon.
It should take minimal imagination to realize that ownership
of children (without any legal strings attached) would today result in the
same practices, and more: breeding of children for organs, for sexual
gratification (to be killed before age of majority), as cheap domestic labor
(again, to be killed before age of majority), etc. etc.
BTW, I agree there is no objective ethical framework, yet,
if you are interested in your own long-term survival, under pleasant
circumstances, as an empirical finding you might want to be a member of a
society based on the principles (ethical symmetry, veil of ignorance, etc.
etc.) which result in a prohibition of infanticide.
Rafal
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