Monday, October 01, 2007

Anti-Humanism Reaching the Highest Intellectual Levels

I am striving to obtain the referenced Journal of Medical Ethics articles, but the abstracts alone illustrate how anti-human and human extinction advocacy is moving from the fringe into the intellectual mainstream. This article is in response to a book entitled Better to Have Never Been, by D. Benetar (apparently a professor from S. Africa). It is a very weak defense of human existence:

Benatar argues that it is better never to have been born because of the harms always associated with human existence. Non-existence entails no harm, along with no experience of the absence of any benefits that existence might offer. Therefore, he maintains that procreation is morally irresponsible, along with the use of reproductive technology to have children. Women should seek termination if they become pregnant and it would be better for potential future generations if humans become extinct as soon as humanely possible. These views are challenged by the argument that while decisions not to procreate may be rational on the grounds of the harm that might occur, it may equally rational to gamble under certain circumstances that future children would be better-off experiencing the harms and benefits of life rather than never having the opportunity of experiencing anything. To the degree that Benatar's arguments preclude the potential rationality of any such gamble, their moral relevance to concrete issues concerning human reproduction is weakened. However, he is right to emphasise the importance of foreseen harm when decisions are made to attempt to have children.
Nihilism is indeed running rampant.

It is worth noting that the Journal also published the Battin assisted suicide propaganda "study" and, as I noted in the San Francisco Chronicle, has previously published articles extolling non therapeutic human experimentation upon patients in PVS.

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4 Comments:

At October 02, 2007 , Blogger T E Fine said...

"May We Live Long and Die Out"
-- slogan of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

Here's a link to an article about VHEM:

http://www.pacifier.com/~dkossy/vhemt.html

So according to the article I linked here, human extinctionism is actually "pro-human" in that the lower the birth rate, the better quality of life for all the members still alive, with the perfect number being zero born.

Meanwhile, the article you mention here says that people are better off never having been born, rather than be born into a world full of troubles.

So nobody else gets born and therefore never has to have trouble, and the rest of us wait for the older folks to die off, then get to reap the benefits of having a smaller population, and therefore have happier lives until we all croke.

I so can't get into this.

 
At October 04, 2007 , Blogger Don Nelson said...

I don't take this guy seriously. If he believed what he said for one minute about human harm and the non harm of non existence he'd take his own advice and drop dead.

 
At October 04, 2007 , Blogger Wesley J. Smith said...

Thanks, Don. But I think it is a mistake to not take these ideas seriously. The guy won't apply the extinction meme to himself--nor would I want him to. But the misanthropy and nihilism is getting so thick we can see it in the air. We need to respond with the hope of human exceptionalism that calls us to the better angels of our nature (to borrow from the always remarkable Abraham Lincoln).

 
At October 05, 2007 , Blogger Don Nelson said...

I agree. I meant to say I don't respect people who don't apply to themselves what they prescribe for the human race and others. But I agree about taking his ideas seriously. People will take his ideas and run with them, and that impacts all of us. We have to take seriously what people say even if they don't mean it for themselves.

 

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