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Originally Posted by tommac
Like I said ... I can agree with that as long as the person not wearing the seatbelt gives up their right to sue as they are not using the safety equipment that comes with their car OR at utter lease give up the rights on any injury that occured from not using the safety device that is installed in the car.
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I think the right they need to release us from is the right to medical treatment at any of Society's expense.
I know this isn't as valid in the States where it's no pay - no treatment, but in other countries the medical system is run to benefit the citizens - requiring our taxes go to provide medical aid to those who choose to not avail themselves of basic safety precautions is why seatbelt & helmet laws are a good idea.
Now, maybe we could run the ignition current through the seatbelt buckle? *grins*
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Originally Posted by disinfo agent
He was wrong on both counts.
First, what makes a particular race better or worse is and will always remain a matter of opinion and of context. There is no objective criterion you can apply to decide such a thing. We may agree on what "a better sheep dog" or "a better hunting dog" or "a better poodle" mean, but "a better dog", period, is a meaningless notion. It depends on what you want the dog for.
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No he wasn't wrong about being able to breed a better race. Failing to have a workable definition for 'better' doesn't mean it can't be done.
PLUS, simply breeding out congenital defects would improve the lot of the majority of humanity.
And I'm pretty sure there are a number of Govts around who would happily breed for a 'better ciitizen' if they could work out how to make us more docile. The same bunch (Nazis) used Sodium Fluoride in the Concentration Camp water supplies to do that job.
from
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=14949
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At the end of World War II, the US government sent Charles Eliot Perkins, a research worker in chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology, to take charge of the vast Farben chemical plants in Germany. The German chemists told Perkins of a scheme which they had devised during the war and had been adapted by the German General Staff. The German chemists explained of their attempt to control the population in any given area through the mass medication of drinking water with sodium fluoride, a tactic used in German and Russian prisoner of war camps to make the prisoners "stupid and docile"(Stephen 1995)
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I think to avoid contaminating this thread further I should leave it to readers to do their own investigation into why it is being added to water supplies in the current times.
Breeding out defects is, I will agree, fraught with danger until we know how it all works, (think Malaria & Sickle Cell anaemia) but once we have it to a decent level of understanding there should be no reason why we can't start removing illness & degenerate disease from the population - apart from the pharmaceuticals of course.
So it is quite possible to breed a better race just by breeding out the defects
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Originally Posted by disinfo agent
Second, even if a government or an individual knew how to breed a better race, they would have no moral authority to do it. Humans are not household animals.
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Can't say I disagree with this... Particularly on the part of any Govt - they are the least likely to have any concept of a moral imperative although I think most of them have amoral imperatives. *grins*