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From: jeff@rtech.ARPA (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.politics,net.legal
Subject: Re: Re. Mike Huybensz's comments on Vet kills baby
Message-ID: <197@rtech.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 1-Mar-85 12:39:21 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.197
Posted: Fri Mar  1 12:39:21 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 3-Mar-85 03:07:57 EST
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Organization: Relational Technology, Berkeley CA
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> 
> Mr. Arndt takes issue with Mr. Huybensz' comments on Infanticide.  Infanticide
> has been practiced by many cultures.  Our culture is not one of these.  Just as
> we see infanticide as immoral, so too would other cultures see our permitting
> "excess" infants to live be immoral.
> 
> Does that make it "right" to kill unwanted new-borns?  No.  "Right" and "wrong"
> are defined by the culture in which one is embedded.  In our culture,
> infanticide is defined as "wrong."
> 

I agree.  Societal rules don't just come out of thin air.
For instance, infanticide is sometimes practiced in societies that have to
control their populations to prevent starvation (e.g. tribal societies living
in the desert).  These societies are doing the right thing (in their eyes)
when they kill infants in order to prevent starvation in the whole tribe.
I doubt that they see infanticide as a good thing.  They would probably see
infanticide in the U.S. as a terrible thing because we have so much food.

Cultural relativism is the belief that people develop their cultural rules
to fit their own circumstances.  It does not follow from a belief in cultural
relativism that one can yank a rule out of one culture and insert it in
another without creating lots of problems.

> The planet has a finite carrying capacity.  Some method must be found for
> insuring that we do not exceed this capacity.  Infanticide is, to me, an
> unpalatable approach.  Would Mr. Arndt care to propose another approach?
> (Preferably one demonstrated to work and more acceptable than the [proven]
> method of infanticide.  Celibacy has been proven to NOT work.)

I don't think there can be one method.  Each society will have to do something
that fits its cultural beliefs.
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
aka Swazoo Koolak