Friday, July 16, 2004

Harm of Death

Some readers here who don't read Fake Barn Country might be interested in the thread at OrangePhilosophy.  The question under consideration is, is it more harmful to the victim if (1) a three-week-old baby is murdered, or (2) a 23-year-old adult is murdered?  If the casting vote's with me, I give it for the latter...   I have some discussion of the question here, as well as in the comments thread to the OP post.  My position is summarized in a comment here:
Much of the harm of death comes from the frustration of our deeply-held interests, and since infants have no such things, they are harmed less by that aspect of death.
This, incidentally, is why I think abortion is permissible. It has nothing to do with the ill-formed question, at what point does life begin?

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