Re:Young Chinese are sick of working long hours
by edflsafoiewq on Thursday May 10, 2018 @02:04PM
(#17041434)
Abortion serves, in modern society, essentially the same function as abandonment.
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Re:Young Chinese are sick of working long hours
by emodendroket on Thursday May 10, 2018 @03:11PM
(#17042039)
Our law does not consider those things equivalent and I bet if you went around and asked many people would not consider that equivalent either.
Re:Young Chinese are sick of working long hours
by edflsafoiewq on Thursday May 10, 2018 @04:21PM
(#17042607)
Naturally a society which practices abortion but not abandonment would think so. But in both cases the function is essentially to provide a mechanism for infanticide to a society in which infanticide is prohibited (or rather, abhorred). There is a rationalization (for us, that the fetus isn't a child; for them, that the child is not actually killed, its life being turned over to the gods or to fate) but the rationalization is secondary to the fact that the act leaves the parent within, or on the border of, the normal workings of society instead of outside them altogether.
Re:Young Chinese are sick of working long hours
by emodendroket on Thursday May 10, 2018 @04:32PM
(#17042697)
I don't agree, but I think my argument would work equally well if we took the example of being born into slavery.
Re:Young Chinese are sick of working long hours
by freehunter on Thursday May 10, 2018 @02:21PM
(#17041598)
Or adoption. Or I mean... it's not like people don't still abandon their babies if they really want to.
Re:Young Chinese are sick of working long hours
by philwelch on Thursday May 10, 2018 @08:15PM
(#17043983)
You can even avoid legal consequences by abandoning them at a fire station: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-haven_law
Re:Young Chinese are sick of working long hours
by emodendroket on Thursday May 10, 2018 @08:19PM
(#17044000)
Yes, but in the Roman world they left them at trash dumps and if they didn't simply die of exposure they were free for anyone to take as slaves. So I think we're still doing a bit better.
Re:Young Chinese are sick of working long hours
by emodendroket on Thursday May 10, 2018 @03:12PM
(#17042046)
So... you're saying that society provides a more humane option so that we no longer leave children to die of exposure. Unlike in the past.