I believe birth control is healthy, moral, beneficial, and reduces the need for abortions.
you got just about an 80% NO on this one nclib. certainly not surprising. I'd have been surprised if an overwhelming majority
didn't think controlling births is moral. moral is basically being concerned with the difference between right and wrong, amoral, then, is inconsideration (or ignorance) in this regard, and immoral is deliberate disregard for this concern. So the underlying question is: is it wrong to limit one's offspring? Given that foods increase algebraically (1,2,3,4,...) and population increases geometrically (1,2,4,8,...) one can assume that unchecked population growth will lead to a condition of overpopulation and widespread poverty. The extreme rightist position (call it amoral, libertarian, Marie Antoinette, whatever you like) is to simply realize that starvation is the one problem that takes care of itself: the starved die; end of problem. The extreme leftist (call it authoritarian, Marxist, whatever you like) position is to force population control (whether by coercive measures, including pills and abortion, as in modern China, or unofficial but extreme pressure not to have sex till after you're married resulting in widespread sexual frustration as in modern China). Clearly, we are not in the habit of calling Leftist-authoritarian societies like China "moral". Thus, the more interesting corollary to your poll is that apparently "moral" isn't the exact philosophical antithesis to "immoral" At least as regards birth control. Or is it? That is, are societies justified, morally, in forcing birth control? We are an individualistic society, as are all Western societies, but much more extremely so, even to the point of debating environmental and population control measures, whereas other countries dominated by White Folk leap immediately to authoritarian measures favoring ecology and/or environment over private business matters. But not all societies in the world are so individualistic. In fact, the most populous and second most populous nations, representing about half the world's population, and many other societies as well, collectively representing a solid majority of humans, are not individualistic, but collectivist. This question doesn't even arise, and the notion of "moral" doesn't even get debated in considerations of birth control. But, given that white people have for over 600 years claimed racial, religious, and moral superiority over the rest of the world (and we're still doing it!), it's natural that such a question would arise. Again, I am not pushing White Man's Guilt, or European Man's Shame, or anything like that. You know from my many posts that, I'm not into that, but it's a simple statement of fact that our individuality allows, maybe even encourages consideration of such questions. So, just how far does your sense of "morality" go? Is it okay, in a world approaching 7X10^9 people, with enough resources for only 8^10^9 people, is it time to adopt some collectivism and force the measure of birth control? After all, your straw poll, clearly and not surprisingly, indicates that it's not "immoral". But just how "moral" is it, after all?
Poll
