Atlas Moral Acceptability Poll

[bagelman]

1. Mundane at this point, opposition though may be morally unacceptable. A

2. There are many factors when unacceptable, but this isn't universally so, so... A

3. Mundane at this point. A

4. Acceptable A

5. Acceptable A

6. eh whatever, fine, acceptable A

7. I would love to have a clone of me walking around, but they would have to solve the issue of clones not living as long as the originals, otherwise it's unacceptable. (A?)

8. Tossup, tilt acceptable A

9. Unlike this option, which I assume is distinct from the above. U

10. Mundane, but still a vice A

11. Mixed, but lean more unacceptable than acceptable, even if not universally so. U

12. non-issue A

13. It's already dead. A

14. VERY UNACCEPTABLE U

15. Acceptable for some crimes A

16. Insert greater good argument here. A

[bagelman]

Sobering numbers on out-of-wedlock births. I

Also, is it just me, or is there something a bit laughable about the fact that a majority of Americans say that it's OK to have children out of wedlock, yet very few who will claim that having an affair is acceptable? I'm not saying that it's incoherent, I just think that it's telling that more of us are bothered by a betrayal of our romantic ideals about marriage than we are about the failure of marriage as a structure for sustaining stable families.

Well, the scenario of poor single parent households immediately being forced on welfare and into a life of stressful and unfulfilling adulthood for the parent and a hectic and troubled childhood for the child wasn't actually the scenario that popped into my head. I was thinking of a rich man having a child with a surrogate mother and then raising it as his own, as a single parent, out of wedlock. Funnily enough, the former scenario is more common. But the latter scenario is an example of the intentional creation of a non-traditional family unit, something cultural libertarians could be OK with.

Besides, having an affair is just an ultimate betrayal of trust on romantic, family, and spiritual levels. In our individualistic culture marriage might be viewed as a personal achievement, the spouse a personal asset that gives emotional support and can must be maintained by giving those same things back. A child..is a bit more one sided. In a capitalistic mindset, a child is a long term investment. A parent may be OK with sacrificing the day to day joys of parenthood and become distant in exchange for having more day to day freedom and still having a smaller "stake" in the child. But the other parent, if hostile, could try to monopolize the child, and out of spite/concern/whatever block the other parent from having a "stake" in the child, thus denying them the "return" on their "investment".


or maybe the above is garbble whatever