The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Value Judgments

Posted on | December 26, 2013 | 11 Comments

This seems simple doesn’t it?

If it isn’t wrong to kill children, then it can not be wrong to do anything else. . . .
Believe it or not, even politically incorrect comments about homosexuality have to be excused if we are to believe that baby killing is a moral act.
I’m often told that I need to be more understanding on this topic, but this is an unfair request. There are people — millions of them, in fact — who think it should be legal to murder babies, but then illegal to, say, pay a fast food worker less than minimum wage, or refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. How could I possibly understand this mentality? How could I wrap my head around the thought process that leads one to conclude that the latter cases are so atrocious — so dehumanizing — that they ought to be outlawed, but the former case is so acceptable that it ought to be vigorously defended, and even funded, by the federal government? . . .
I say all of this because my initial intention was to sit down and write about the couple in Washington who just won a 50 million dollar “wrongful birth” settlement. Brock and Rhea Wuth sued a hospital because their son was born severely disabled. No, they were not alleging that the hospital caused the disability; they alleged that the hospital (and a lab testing facility) did not run the correct tests that would have detected the genetic defects while the child was still in the womb. Had they been given the correct tests, they would have known that the baby was “defective,” and then killed it. Tragically, they were robbed of the opportunity to abort their son, so the hospital must pay for the son’s care — for the rest of his life.

“Wrongful birth”? You can sue somebody for that?

Does this mean Red Sox fans can sue because Bill Buckner was born?

 


Comments

11 Responses to “Value Judgments”

  1. Michael Smith
    December 26th, 2013 @ 10:17 am

    This is a perfect example of the F.A. Hayek quote from Hayek’s Road to Serfdom and a chapter titled “Why the Worst Get on Top”:

    “Since it is the supreme leader who alone determines the ends, his instruments must have no moral convictions of their own. They must, above all, be unreservedly committed to the person of the leader; but next to this the most important thing is that they should be completely unprincipled and literally capable of everything. They must have no ideals of their own which they want to realize; no ideas about right or wrong which might interfere with the intentions of the leader.

    There is thus in the positions of power little to attract those who hold moral beliefs of the kind which in the past have guided the European peoples, little which could compensate for the distastefulness of many of the particular tasks, and little opportunity to gratify any more idealistic desires, to recompense for the undeniable risk, the sacrifice of most of the pleasures of private life and of personal independence which the posts of great responsibility involve.

    The only tastes which are satisfied are the taste for power as such and the pleasure of being obeyed and of being part of a well-functioning and immensely powerful machine to which everything else must give way.”

  2. Mm
    December 26th, 2013 @ 10:26 am

    Wrongful birth, historically, is NOT actionable and it is likely that this will be overturned on appeal. We are living in strange times, however, so who knows for sure.

  3. stevenertelt
    December 26th, 2013 @ 10:28 am

    Couple Wins $50M in Biggest “Wrongful Birth” Suit, Would Have Aborted Disabled Baby http://www.lifenews.com/2013/12/13/couple-wins-50m-in-biggest-wrongful-birth-suit-doc-didnt-suggest-aborting-disabled-baby/

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 26th, 2013 @ 11:16 am
  5. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 26th, 2013 @ 12:25 pm

    http://www.inc.com/leigh-buchanan/innovation-story-of-the-year.html?cid=ps01902innovate Sometimes good guys do good things (and benefit from it).

  6. Adjoran
    December 26th, 2013 @ 2:31 pm

    It just shows the depravity of California has metastized to the Northwest coastal areas, which unfortunately have sufficient population to control those states.

    The best we can hope is that they fall into the Pacific when the California coast does.

  7. Charles
    December 26th, 2013 @ 6:43 pm

    Bill Buckner? Pick another poster child. He got a standing ovation from Red Sox fans in 1990 and another one in 2008.

    That was always a media-hyped grudge: “I really had to forgive, not the fans of Boston, per se, but I would have to say in my heart I had to forgive the media for what they put me and my family through. So, you know, I’ve done that and I’m over that.”

  8. ChrisDavis2011
    December 26th, 2013 @ 9:00 pm

    I submit the reason why abortion in America has resulted in the deaths of 55 million pre-born babies is because people don’t believe it is morally wrong.

    They may think it is wrong, they may feel that is it is wrong, but they simply don’t believe it to be wrong.

    Citizenry rarely, if ever, act on thoughts or feelings. The people occasionally will rise up to fight a strongly held belief.

    Most people are far too concerned with being liked, getting that next promotion, worrying about what people think of them. Mostly, people are more concerned about losing something they have or not getting something they want than they are about the death of image bearers of God.

  9. Steve Skubinna
    December 27th, 2013 @ 12:24 am

    You know, that Hayek passage could just as well have been commentary for The Screwtape Letters.

  10. Steve Skubinna
    December 27th, 2013 @ 12:25 am

    Even of they know it is wrong, convenience trumps morality for an awful lot of people.

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