Hilary's Desk

Readers of the print version of the New Zealand Herald, will have read  "Killing babies 'the same as abortion' " about an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, which discusses the "rationale" that babies should be able to be killed after birth, not just during pregnancy. I failed to find the URL on the Herald website, the only article available, being a sanitised version (pdf here) - no doubt at the request of the PC brigade. Naturally, there has been a huge public reaction which has prompted the editor of the journal, Julian Savulescu to defend publication.

What is really interesting about his defence, is that it doesn't centre around the "ethical" rationale.  It centres around the tenor of the public reaction to the article.  Savulescu highlights "abusive" correspondence and internet comments and he sums up his defence by saying that such nasty comments are indicative of:

"the deep disorder of the modern world." and that "the deep opposition that exists now to liberal values and fanatical opposition to any kind of reasoned engagement." (emphasis mine)
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Why is it, that everyone else wants to editorialise on other people's choices?  This is an interesting question, after the last blog on the bigger picture of breastfeeding.  Do I care if people want to put artificial formula into their babies?  On the one hand, no I don't because it's their choice, but on the other hand, yes, I do, because it's my experience, that most people do that, because they have not been correctly or adequately informed about the consequences of artificial food for babies. I also "care", because at a fundamental level the best health comes from a baby's natural birth-right - the mammalian breast.  The conflict comes with what is "euphemistically" called "choice" where the pro-breast feeders are called "breastfeeding nazis". 

The debate in the Herald was concentrated on "pushiness", not fact:
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