March 1, 2012
FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE NAZIS...:
Killing babies no different from abortion, experts say (Stephen Adams, 29 Feb 2012, The Telegraph)
Parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are "morally irrelevant" and ending their lives is no different to abortion, a group of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University has argued.The article, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, says newborn babies are not "actual persons" and do not have a "moral right to life". The academics also argue that parents should be able to have their baby killed if it turns out to be disabled when it is born.The journal's editor, Prof Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, said the article's authors had received death threats since publishing the article. He said those who made abusive and threatening posts about the study were "fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society".
They're right to a significant degree--there is no difference between killing babies--but fail to reckon with the follow-on issue: how is killing medical ethicists any different than killing other human beings?
Posted by Orrin Judd at March 1, 2012 6:30 AM
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