A return to blogging...

...Which might be coming too late to make any difference. Oh well.
I will now address one of my questions from this past week's Q&A.

The President's Council on Bioethics referenced the fact that many children who are adopted or the offspring of a sperm donor go on to try to seek out their genetic parents. From this, they argued against cloning-to-produce-children using genetic material from a donor who is not related to the prospective parents.

However, I think that the drive to find one's "real parents" is a social construct. We put too much stock in knowing whose cells fused to form the zygote we grew from. The people who helped us become functioning human beings after birth are at least as important, in my opinion.

Intolerance for the intolerant

Why is it considered acceptable, even admirable, to harbor intolerance for those who are intolerant? Does it make us just as bad as them, or is it somehow justified?

At least, that's what they say

This is a response to the musings of Brandon and Avery concerning gendered pronouns.

I believe there are only two reasons as to why "they" has not completely caught on as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun. First, that it looks odd in writing; second, that it can become complicated if you are referencing a hypothetical or unknown individual relative to a group, which can make it unclear whether the "they" is singular or plural.

The solution for the first problem is to get used to it. If we use it enough this will happen eventually. The second problem is somewhat trickier; we must depend heavily upon context and careful use of proper nouns. To be perfectly honest, this does not seem to be a common scenario, but since it sprung so quickly to my mind, I might hazard a guess that it worries some people.

With all this said, I also support the use of "they" as a singular pronoun and use it in such a manner myself.

Abortion

Recently I came across this video. It's a little long-winded and rambling, but it more or less matches up with my opinions.

I especially appreciated the fact that she really delved into the social perceptions of abortion, rather than clouding the issue with analogies as some of the philosophers we read have done.

"Human life is really only as valuable as you make it...who then dictates how valuable human life is?"

Self-defense principle in other contexts

One of my questions for last week's Q&A was whether the self-defense principle is applicable in, and can be adjusted for, matters other than life and death. For instance, suppose you have a colleague at Workplace, Inc. who, for whatever reason, is trying to get you fired. Would it be justifiable to somehow sabotage his work to protect your own job security?

Upon reflection, I don't think this would be appropriate. That sort of ends-justify-means business paradigm seems to be the root of the unethical dealings that collapsed the economy.

Personal thoughts on Killing vs. Letting Die

The readings have all but convinced me that, in theory, there is no difference between killing someone and letting them die. However, my gut tells me there is a difference. For instance, if I were on a sailboat in waters infested by box jellyfish with a politician or an executive of the entertainment industry in a nearby sailboat, and the politician/entertainment executive fell out of their boat, i would gleefully sail away. Yet at the same time, if someone gave me a catapult loaded with box jellyfish and pointed me at a politician/entertainment executive, I would be unable to launch a single jellyfish.

I think that the idea that the two are different is invented, but has become so ingrained in our minds -- probably due to its uses for rationalizing murder -- that it would take a very long time indeed to dislodge it.

Introductions

Hello everyone. I am JonDavid, or at least that's what my name is. I believe that the two best things in life may be music -- I can play five instruments, though I can only claim to be truly proficient in one or two -- and hats, of which I own nine and counting. I am a freshman with no major yet.