Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ihnp4!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!seismo!caip!pyrnj!mirror!gabriel!inmet!janw
From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sci
Subject: Re: A Modest Proposal
Message-ID: <26500099@inmet>
Date: Sat, 20-Sep-86 12:02:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.26500099
Posted: Sat Sep 20 12:02:00 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Sep-86 19:32:05 EDT
References: <26500079@inmet>
Lines: 36
Nf-ID: #R:inmet:26500079:inmet:26500099:000:1400
Nf-From: inmet.UUCP!janw    Sep 20 12:02:00 1986


[radford@calgary.UUCP ]
>For those who don't believe Jan meant this as satire, I will point out
>that effective means of suicide have never been hard to come by, so this
>isn't much of a "proposal".

A "decriminalized but not legalized" case.

But I made my position clear many times. I like people; I welcome
more of them around; I think they make more living space for each
other than they take; but I also think birth and death  ought  to
be  private. I am not into social tinkering of either population-
reducing, or population-increasing kind.

The "proposal" is in the nature of a challenge to the other  side
of  the debate: if you want that, say I, then you ought to prefer
this.

Utilitarianism is not my basic approach: but I believe that, con-
sistently  followed,  it  leads to libertarian conclusions, as it
often did in the hands of Mill.

>I also note that the title of the posting,
>"A Modest Proposal", was first used by Jonathan Swift in advocating 
>that Irish babies be eaten.

Exactly. That old essay is a staple of modern education.   
I expected readers to recollect it.

To make it even clearer: I don't recommend or encourage suicide.
If I did, I would do it for the sake of the person involved - not
to  relieve  traffic  congestion (like that governor who said old
people have a duty to die). But even *that* is less heinous  than
imposed birth control.

			Jan Wasilewsky