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Subject: 
Re: From Harry Browne
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Thu, 16 Nov 2000 08:58:57 GMT
Viewed: 
835 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Scott Arthur writes:

Well, let's see.... if you want to apply the same logic, you need to choose
a comparable crime.

I did.  Murder of an adult and murder of a fetus.  You're turning it around
wrong.

<SNIPPED>

Sorry to barge in. I think you could argue, as you do, that both your
hypothetical adult & foetus could be considered victims in murder. However,
the if a foetus were to cease to exist, society would not notice - there
would be no other "victim" other than the foetus itself.

Agreed.  Absolutely.  I personally value most adults more than any fetus.  On
the other hand, I'm not sure that we want our laws to set the severity of
penalty for murder based on the societal importance of the victim.  In that
case, killing a nine year old orphan would have less penalty than killing your
dentist.

Yes, I had thought of that when I drafted my last post. I suppose society
has "invested" in your hypothetical 9 year old... but that is not a very
strong argument.

I suppose my original argument reflects the current trend for the views of
relatives/victims to be considered more in these matters.

Scott A



This actually makes sense from a certain perspective, but I think we want to be
as objective as possible about crime penalties.

Whereas, your
hypothetical adult may well have friends, family and contributions to make
to society as a whole - so there would be a far greater loss. Therefore, in
the broadest sense, you two cases are not equivalent... at least in my mind,
at this moment.

I think that they were logically equivalent.  Not exactly the same.

Chris



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: From Harry Browne
 
Uh, society is not the victim here, dude. When talking about murder, the victim normally is the person who was murdered, but maybe on your planet the purpose of justice in a murder trial is to figure out how the unfortunate slaying of an innocent (...) (24 years ago, 27-Nov-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: From Harry Browne
 
(...) Agreed. Absolutely. I personally value most adults more than any fetus. On the other hand, I'm not sure that we want our laws to set the severity of penalty for murder based on the societal importance of the victim. In that case, killing a (...) (24 years ago, 15-Nov-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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