Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: End of line.
First, a little mood music
Carrying on…
“Daisy… Daisy…”
So much for a “right to choose” for underaged girls.
“A High Court judge in the UK has ruled that an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped must have an abortion, contrary to the wishes of the girl and her family.
“According to the Telegraph, the girl, whose identity remains unpublished, became pregnant after being sexually assaulted by a 14-year-old boy she met online when she was ten. Following news of the pregnancy, High Court judge Emma Arbuthnot ruled that aborting the baby in the womb is in the girl’s best interests and that the placenta should be tested for DNA for the upcoming criminal investigation.
“The girl, who is 15 weeks pregnant, said that the baby made her feel “special” and that she was “happy” to be pregnant. The girl’s mom initially said she supported her daughter’s desire to carry the baby to term. However, after being persuaded that their daughter’s chances of dying during childbirth were increased, the parents later consented to the abortion. If the parents did not agree, their child would have been removed from their custody by law enforcement and forced to have one.”
Are the any people more unethical than “ethicists”?
“To understand Singer’s perspective: He doesn’t believe that human life has moral value simply because he or she is human. Rather, value has to be earned, primarily be being self-aware or able to value life. He argues that self-aware entities are “persons” — including some animals.
“He also believes that non-self-aware beings–including human infants, unborn babies, and people who have serious dementia, persistent unconsciousness or minimal consciousness–are not persons. Non-persons, in his view, have lower moral value than persons, and indeed, can be killed or used instrumentally for the benefit of persons, such as being experimented upon. Thus, Singer has argued that cognitively disabled humans should have been used to research hepatitis and HIV vaccines rather than chimpanzees.
“No wonder Singer compares turning off a non-sentient AI machine to abortion:
“‘But, according to Peter Singer, that doesn’t mean we can’t stop AI in its tracks before it becomes self-aware. “I think that’s more like terminating a pregnancy . . . so I would say it’s okay to turn off an AI that predictably will become self-aware if you leave it running, but isn’t as yet.”’
“So, killing an unborn baby — a nascent human being with a beating heart — is akin to turning off a sophisticated computer. Talk about an ethically stunted outlook.”
The news isn’t all bad. Case in point: Georgia.
“The current restrictions on abortion in Georgia should remain in place, the state Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
“That means most abortions will continue to be banned once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, typically around six weeks of pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant, while the Fulton County Superior Court considers other arguments made by abortion advocates and providers about why the restrictions should be lifted, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.”
TTFN.
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