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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: Population control & Freedom
Message-ID: <117400002@inmet>
Date: Wed, 24-Sep-86 04:40:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.117400002
Posted: Wed Sep 24 04:40:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 08:08:49 EDT
References: <980@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
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Nf-From: inmet.UUCP!janw    Sep 24 04:40:00 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 English-language
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