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comment by b_b
b_b  ·  4650 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?
Couldn't have said it better myself!

As to your points about slavery, sacrifice, etc. I agree that what matters is how our current society views moral matters, not what generations past thought. Despite what moral absolutists say, history is clear that morals are relative. I think most people would agree that at this time in the West, killing babies is pretty universally abhorred.

Plus, on the practical side, good luck getting any doctors (ya know, that whole "First do no harm" thing) to kill a healthy newborn. That would cause PTSD in even the most hard-hearted physicians, I believe. I don't know about Australia, where this paper came from, but pretty much every state in the US has laws whereby a mother can abandon a child at a hospital, or police or fire station, no questions asked.

It seems to me that even if one can construct an academic argument in favor of infanticide, there is no practical room for it in a civilized society.





riemannman  ·  4648 days ago  ·  link  ·  
When you say "Despite what moral absolutists say, history is clear that morals are relative." I would have to disagree. I believe that the only difference people can have on the issue of morality is how they define it. It's not too hard to come to common ground with everyone on certain fundamentals of what morality constitutes (except for those who believe in things like divine command theory).

Given that morality is a system of accepted actions that benefit society (which I think is not too much of a leap), one can objectively say that things like slavery, murder, and rape are wrong.