Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!whuxcc!lcuxlm!akgua!gatech!lll-lcc!csustan!smdev From: smdev@csustan.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sci Subject: Re: A Modest Proposal Message-ID: <166@csustan.UUCP> Date: Tue, 9-Sep-86 15:45:43 EDT Article-I.D.: csustan.166 Posted: Tue Sep 9 15:45:43 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 11-Sep-86 08:25:10 EDT References: <26500079@inmet> Reply-To: smdev@csustan.UUCP (Scott Hazen Mueller) Organization: City of Turlock Lines: 52 In article <> janw@inmet.UUCP writes: > >[Oded Feingold: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP] <>With the human population burgeoning beyond all reasonable bounds, and <>pushing the rest of creation into extinction, maybe what we really <>need is freely available euthanasia, which people can and will (enthu- <>siastically) self-administer. > >Oded's proposal is non-coercive. >But it is morally preferable even compared to encouraging volun- >tary population control. What are the malthusians afraid of? That >people may be brought into the world whose life will be not worth >living? Well, let *them* be the judges of that. I'm not afraid of someone else's quality of life declining, just my own. >If it's not worth it, they can quit. If they are never >born, they get no chance and no choice. I've heard this one before. I suppose you think masturbation and menstruation are wrong also...since all of those sperm and eggs "get no chance and no choice." >[...] - the world is guaranteed a population the *worst-off* part of >which thinks life worth living. [...] So let us adopt the plan. > >At any rate all population control advocates should embrace it, >*unless* what really interests them is not overpopulation, but >control for control's sake. If they won't let people be born *or* >die without permission, then they simply want total control over >you - or, in equivalent words - they want to *own* you. > > Jan Wasilewsky Agreed. Voluntary euthanasia, suicide if you will, should not be legally wrong. Also, then so should all other self-destructive activities that do not infringe on others. Of course, if self-destructiveness is a genetic trait, after a few generations this will fail as a a means of population control. But wait...start a religion! Convince people that it is there moral/ethical/spiritual duty to suicide! Why not just do it right from the start? Convince people to be smart instead of stupid...to look to the future instead of the past...to plan events rather than be carried along by events... Ahhhh, forget it. Let's go with voluntary suicide. It's easier. \scott -- Scott Hazen Mueller lll-crg.arpa!csustan!smdev City of Turlock work: (209) 668-5590 -or- 5628 901 South Walnut Avenue home: (209) 527-1203 Turlock, CA 95380