From: Damien Broderick (thespike@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Jan 09 2003 - 10:59:20 MST
Lee Corbin says:
> Damien wrote
>
> > Suppose a grown phocomelus wishes to have a child just like
> > herself? This might be arranged via access to thalidomide at
> > her embryo's appropriate developmental stage.
> > Is this a right course of conduct?
> 1. Is her course of conduct right?
>
> I have long had a hunch that this is exactly the wrong
> question to ask. It brings bad memes and patterns of
> thinking into play.
You missed the frame here: I was responding within the context that Hal's
post had set up; he wrote:
< In my experience we move too quickly from the question of what is right
to the question of what is allowed. These are very difficult and complex
issues, but all too soon we are trying to decide the matter not only for
ourselves, but for our neighbors as well. [...]
< I would encourage people to step back from the question of what should be
allowed and to try to focus the discourse on questions of what personal
actions we would choose in various circumstances. >
That is, Hal explicitly asked us to consider what actions are right, rather
than what are lawful or `allowed'. Of course there is an immense body of
ethical philosophy concerning these topics, the words we deploy in dealing
them, the values and strategies implied by those words, etc etc.
Damien Broderick
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