Abortion demonstration just doesn't sound right.

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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I think you are right in that there is no loss in the amount of potential but I think there is almost bound to be loss in the type of potential. How often does a Mozart or Thomas Edison show up?

You would have variants of those same people for the time and place that they existed.

Also bear in mind that technology and society at that time helped fuel those sorts of actions. We're living in a different age where sustainability will become necessary as technology continues its push forward.
 

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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The planet can easily sustain another 15 billion.

Good to know. At the rate we're going, we should get there in less than 100 years.

 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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Plenty but our **** education system holds the brightest back from achieving more. I skipped a grade back in the day but they don't do that anymore.

With achievers like Mozart and Edison, formal education probably plays a very small role in their development. In school I think Abe Lincoln may have reached grade 2.
 

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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Indeed it is, and it happens every day, too.

One relatively common birth disability is a faulty development of the spine known as spina bifida. Its prevalence, varies in different countries, but it can affect as many as one in five hundred live births. In the more severe cases, the child will be permanently paralysed from the waistdown and lack control of bowels or bladder. Often excess fluid accumulates in the brain, a condition known as hydrocephalus, which can result in intellectual disabilities. Though some forms of treatment exist, if the child is badly affected at birth, the paralysis, incontinence, and intellectual disability cannot be overcome.

Some doctors closely connected with children suffering from severe spina bifida believe that the lives of the worst affected children are so miserable that it is wrong to resort to surgery to keep them alive. Published descriptions of the lives of these children support the judgment that these worst affected children will have lives filled with pain and discomfort. They need repeated major surgery to prevent curvature of the spine, due to the paralysis, and to correct other abnormalities. Some children with spina bifida have had forty major operations before they reach their teenage years.

Taking Life: Humans, by Peter Singer
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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With achievers like Mozart and Edison, formal education probably plays a very small role in their development. In school I think Abe Lincoln may have reached grade 2.
Edison was a money man who hired the brilliant and took the credit like any business man would. Without Tesla, there wouldn't have been an Edison.

When it comes to pure brilliance Tesla was by far the most influential person in creating the world we live in today.

What do you expect us to do? Cut back to two meals a day?
Nope. If land were properly utilized for growing food rather than growing industrial products or useless fillers for food like palm kernel oil we would have no problems feeding everyone and feeding them with very healthy and nutritious foods.
 

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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Nope. If land were properly utilized for growing food rather than growing industrial products or useless fillers for food like palm kernel oil we would have no problems feeding everyone and feeding them with very healthy and nutritious foods.

Organic farming also helps.
 

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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Except it is not sustainable.

That's not true. Organic farming is more sustainable than industrial farming.

It may be more expensive for consumers, but the actual farms themselves are a sustainable biodiversity.
 

DaSleeper

Trolling Hypocrites
May 27, 2007
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One relatively common birth disability is a faulty development of the spine known as spina bifida. Its prevalence, varies in different countries, but it can affect as many as one in five hundred live births. In the more severe cases, the child will be permanently paralysed from the waistdown and lack control of bowels or bladder. Often excess fluid accumulates in the brain, a condition known as hydrocephalus, which can result in intellectual disabilities. Though some forms of treatment exist, if the child is badly affected at birth, the paralysis, incontinence, and intellectual disability cannot be overcome.
Taking Life: Humans, by Peter Singer

Strange that you should mention that particular condition....
Someone I know is living a very productive life with that condition......nuff said!
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
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I suppose one "benchmark" of the viability of life would be the ability to maintain vital signs without the use of gadgets, hence I don't think you can pin point any disease or condition on its own.
 

Ariadne

Council Member
Aug 7, 2006
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But it's legal to kill a baby just seconds before it is born.

In what country is it legal to do that?

It's not painful to have forceps jabbed into your cerebral cortex while a doctor is trying to push you back into the womb so the abortion is legal as the birth hasn't been complete?

To me that is flat out murder.

Good grief! What country do you live in? It sounds like you live amongst barbarians.
 

PoliticalNick

The Troll Bashing Troll
Mar 8, 2011
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It's not painful to have forceps jabbed into your cerebral cortex while a doctor is trying to push you back into the womb so the abortion is legal as the birth hasn't been complete?

To me that is flat out murder.

Murder to me too. I do believe that even if we are to be pro-choice there should be some reasonable limits. I'm not the expert to say how many weeks that is but I would say nothing past half-term and definitely nothing in the 3rd trimester. With this topic I know even this will be hotly debated. Just my opinion.