Nipping Felons in the Bud
David P. Mortimer on Abortion & Crime Reduction
In 1729, Jonathan Swift presented, in an anonymous pamphlet, a commonsense solution to the intractable problems of Irish hunger, poverty, crime, and the problem of unwanted children. In A Modest Proposal, he suggested that a fourth of the younger children be fattened and sold in the market for food. Every child—even the illegitimate—would be a wanted child, with all the value and advantage of a prized head of livestock. Crime would plummet. Hunger and overpopulation would end. The stagnant economy would prosper. Simply turn the problem into a profitable solution for the greater good.
The attitude to human life Swift satirized has now been given apparent scientific and economic support. The “unwanted” unborn are valued only for the effect they will have on society as a whole. The embryo or fetus may be harvested for his tissue or stem cells to benefit society or eliminated before birth if someday he may (only may) harm society.
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more on abortion from the online archives
24.1—January/February 2011
How Planned Parenthood's Founder Played the Christians, and Won by Allan C. Carlson
19.1—January/February 2006
on Death & Seven of the Last Words of Socrates by Graeme Hunter
26.1—Jan/Feb 2013
on Abortion as a Matter of National Welfare by W. Ross Blackburn
more from the online archives
23.6—November/December 2010
Darwin, Design & Thomas Aquinas
The Mythical Conflict Between Thomism & Intelligent Design by Logan Paul Gage
19.6—July/August 2006
The Three-Fold Cord of Imagination, Reason & Will in C. S. Lewis by Michael Ward
31.1—January/February 2018
on Ragnarök, an Extreme Weather Event & the Paths to Conversion by Timothy J. Burbery
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