Quote:Quote:
If there was an epidemic of inbreeding due to sperm donation, and areas of the country experienced Ozarks like conditions, then I might agree that the greater societal interest might be justified in taking away people's freedom to reproduce in the way they wanted to.
But as far as I am aware, the cases where an individual donor fathers dozens or hundreds of babies are exceptional and sensational, and not indicative of any sort of trend.
It is not the role of government to create or foster what you or someone else might perceive as an ideal society.
The role of government is to guarantee your freedom to do whatever you want, provided that your exercise of that freedom does not impinge on the ability of others to enjoy their own freedom.
Otherwise, you have a slippery slope, where the government keeps giving itself new powers, and has an ever greater role in molding society by force. Now, that sounds great if you or someone you happen to agree with is in power. You can impose your will on everyone else and create your brave new world. Except, it becomes pretty damn horrible when someone you don't agree with, or someone with malevolent intentions assumes power.
So, let the lesbians do what they want. They leave me alone, I leave them alone. As long as they aren't breaking any laws, and as long as they aren't interfering with my life, what business is it of mine?
Also, about birth defects. I don't think that IVF and frozen sperm have massive risks of increased birth defects. Some slight or moderate increase, yes. But I don't think we know exactly. Much bigger risk factors for birth defects are age, environmental pollution, and drug/alcohol consumption.
But we don't prevent males or females that are not 18-35 from bearing or fathering children, and people in polluted areas still breed, and people who drink/smoke as well. If preventing birth defects is a new standard to be imposed by your Ministry of Reproduction, what would the rules look like and how would they be enforced?
You know, I largely agree with you. I don't want the government interfering with my life or some sort of ministry of reproduction type of Brave New World or 1984 or whatever.
However, there still seems to be a big difference between reproductive technologies in a individualist socio-political philosophy and other types of technology. Which is why I compared fraud of buying a new car and getting a lemon to what happened to these people.
For one, with reproduction you don't get a guaranteed end result. Two, even if you could get it I am not sure it would be completely free of any ethical constraints. Now, this gets into a lot of bio-ethics and I enjoy these types of discussions since I majored in Philosophy my first time around but I can't say that I am completely on board with this or that I have my mind made up.
I will give you an example that is a bit different but I think highlights where some of the ethical concerns reside for me.
In one of my first ethics classes we dealt with a case of two deaf lesbians. They wanted a child. However, they were part of the deaf sub-community that refuses to see deafness as a disability and instead see it as a benefit similar in some ways to ethnicity.
So, this meant that they wanted their child to be deaf. They set out to find a deaf sperm donor with the correct type of genetic defects that it would 100% guarantee that their child was born deaf. They got pregnant, gave birth, and the child was indeed deaf.
If I remember correctly they got investigated by the state and there was some lawsuit and I think they actually won due to arguments about "my body, my choice" but it has been a number of years and the point is that while they didn't use a sperm bank they still manipulated the reproductive situation in a way to have a biological result that will pass on for future generations to varying degrees.
Now, you said this:
Quote:Quote:
The role of government is to guarantee your freedom to do whatever you want, provided that your exercise of that freedom does not impinge on the ability of others to enjoy their own freedom.
Can you and I agree that a deaf child will require greater communal resources than a regular child born from non-reproductive technologies?
What happens if this becomes a larger phenomenon in the deaf, or insert any other type of group, community?
What if instead of having one deaf child, they decided to be the next octomom?
Can we really make the claim that
the government does not have a responsibility in these cases to society and even more the continuation of a productive society? (Note: I am not saying deaf people can't be productive, I am just asking questions to try to widdle down a conclusion from the example I shared)
I think the government does have some responsibility, just as citizens do, in these areas.
One example I would use to back up my claim that the government has a responsibility to the collective - (Note: I tend to be a hardcore individualist on most social and political philosophies, but I can be a bit of a hypocrite sometimes in that I think there needs to be some measure of communitarianism in certain areas but I am amendable to changing my mind and I do so often) - would be immunization and the need for herd immunity.
Now, I don't want this to get derailed into a vaccine/anti-vaccine debate but there are, at minimum, several vaccines that need to be given at some point to children (I think we can all agree on that even if you do think there might be some risks) to keep up herd immunity.
If we go with a strict individualist ethical and moral stance on the former issues then I would think you would have to concede that stance on the latter issues.
I hope that makes sense. I am not trying to start any shit or anything.
And again, I do generally agree with your stance but there is still something about all of these reproductive technologies, especially sperm donors for lesbian couples, that makes my skin crawl a bit and I try to trust my instinct, or at least figure it out, with respect to moral dilemmas.
Also, I hope I explained my position and thoughts clearly enough because I have been up all night and will probably pass out in a few minutes.
Women these days think they can shop for a man like they shop for a purse or a pair of shoes. Sorry ladies. It doesn't work that way.
Women are like sandwiches. All men love sandwiches. That's a given. But sandwiches are only good when they're fresh. Nobody wants a day old sandwich. The bread is all soggy and the meat is spoiled.
-Parlay44 @
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-35074.html