Multichoice test:
i, Assume we agree that drug-taking is undesirable. What, in the real world, is the best way to reduce drug-taking and the harm it does:
a) Make buying drugs illegal, and persecute drug buyers.
b) Make selling drugs illegal, and persecute drug sellers.
c) Both a and b.
d, Neither a or b. Treat drugs as a social or medical problem, and look at ways to mitigate the harm caused by legalised drugs, say by allowing experimentation under controlled conditions, regulating drug quality, and ensuring that a black market supporting violence doesn't arise.
ii, Assume we agree that abortions are undesirable. What, in the real world, is the best way to reduce the number of abortions taking place:
a) Make seeking an abortion illegal, and persecute pregnant abortion-seekers.
b) Make giving abortions illegal, and persecute abortion doctors.
c) Both a and b.
d, Neither a or b. Treat abortion as a social or educational problem, and look at ways to reduce the need for legalised abortions, say by teaching and encouraging effective contraceptive use, and the easy availability of emergency contraception. Mitigate some of the harm of abortion by ensuring it is provided under medical conditions.
iii, Assume we agree that prostitution is undesirable. What, in the real world, is the best way to reduce the amount of prostitution taking place:
a) Make seeking a prostitute illegal, and persecute johns.
b) Make providing prostitution illegal, and persecute prostitutes.
c) Both a and b.
d, Neither a or b. Treat prostitution as a social or economic problem, and look at ways to reduce the demand for prostitution, say by encouraging a sane and adult approach to sexuality, and providing real economic alternatives at the lower end of society to avoid driving people to prostitution. Mitigate some of the harm of prostitution by attempting to regulate it to avoid exploitation and to prevent sexual diseases.
iv, Which is a more ethical liberal stance:
a) Self-righteous bleating about vice in the pursuit of ideological purity, regardless of the actual effect.
b) Pragmatically dealing with vice as it shows up in the real world.
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3 comments:
I like this.
Certainly much better than just adding to the "Shalt Nots" without any constructive framework apart from "or else you'll burn in hell forever".
Would add that part of the social fixes for reducing the need to abort would include making it easier to have and bring up an unplanned child - with increased practical and emotional support.
Yrs, Spikey.
I'm inclined to separate out spawning from actually raising a kid. The latter, in my opinion, is a job all of its own which deserves as much support as possible - regardless of whether the kid is planned, unplanned, natural or adopted.
Treat abortion and reproduction as a separate issue from actually parenting.
Yrs, Spikey.
Yeah, right - you tease.
Okay *now* I disagree with you - and I will frame my argument/opinion any way I choose Mister.
I went to an interesting seminar by Germaine Greer (feminist icon, if not hero/ine)a year or two ago where she said that she now felt that the focus should be more on why women *need* to abort instead on, merely, why they should be allowed to. I think that she made a valid point.
Failed/non-existent contraception does start things off, but once an unplanned event happens other factors come into play that may necessitate an extreme & non-ideal response, i.e. having a potential life removed from one's body.
If we're going to dream of an ideal world in which abortion isn't the necessary evil (although I wouldn't say "sin") it currently is; why not dream of a society in which all factors are more user friendly?
Okay - mine - Spikey.
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