You're not listening...I try not to believe in philosophies, belief systems, faiths, religions, all the inevitably flawed human intellectual or faith driven systems.
I don't step on ants on purpose, that's just mean and brutal, I simply acknowledge that their worth to the natural world I love is far greater than that of my own species, which is busily destroying the world I love.
Infanticide is actually wise in some circumstances, in cases where the life of the infant will be short and in constant suffering, where it will incur huge monetary cost to a medical system that can't or won't provide basic medical care to "healthy" people, in cases when the trauma and expense will destroy a family. Sadly, most people don't have the wisdom to make this kind of decision so it's better to deny it to all rather than to open the door to abuse.
In the case of the fertilized egg, the fetus, the fetus prior to brain activity capable of consciousness, the interests of the mother trump all others. She carries the considerable risk of pregnancy and birth, the considerable responsibility and expense of raising a child, and humans as a species are already too numerous, so numerous that they are destroying the environment on which all life relies. As a society we already throw away children in impoverished homes, rotten schools, denial of basic health care, vicious competition for social position. In my opinion we have plenty to do to care for the children that people choose to have and are falling short in that regard. As the old saying goes, when you're in a hole the first thing to do is to stop digging
Neither you nor anyone or anything else can decide what MY duty is. Duty is accepted by the person who undertakes it, if it is forced on them then it is compliance, a very different thing. When I was young many of my contemporaries felt a duty to fight in Vietnam, many others felt a duty to resist the war in any way possible. Still others were forced by law to fight and acquiesced to that force. Possibly those who accepted their draft notices felt a duty to obey the law, those who resisted heeded the Nuremberg principle that the individual soldier has a duty not to obey illegal orders, those who volunteered felt a duty to support the supposed fight against communism and the domino effect. Each case raised different values, each was a legitimate exercise of personal duty.
Why would you think that someone whose standards of morality differ from yours thought that "there's no such thing as right and wrong"? Why is the Catholic church not wrong to teach young people that masturbation is disordered? Are you willing to just accept the morality dictates of a third party with sheep like obedience? Why is your own conscience of so little value? When you see the obvious self serving and evil behavior of institutions that profess to set moral standards, why do you have so little confidence in your own judgement?
Are you willing to let me impose my moral standards on you? How can you prove that my standards are right or wrong, how can you prove that yours are right or wrong? Again, if you can even strongly support those standards that you think is right I am always willing to listen. I grant NO person or institution the automatic right to set my moral standards, I certainly have never seen one that inspires my confidence in their judgement.
As to rights, sadly only a few states enforce the agreed upon rights of their citizens' we happen to be fortunate enough to live in one of them.
To what end do I set my standards of conscience? To the end of living a good and proper life, to have as little torment from the knowledge of having acted in a way that harmed others. Would my conscience justify harming others in anything else than self defense? What a silly question, and so far from reality.
People regularly use their religious, political, or selfish personal beliefs to justify harming others. The mass societal crimes done in the name of Christianity are nauseating. In the end, we all decide what standards, what rationalizations we will follow or use to justify our actions.
I know this and act accordingly. So many others hide behind standards of "morality" handed to them by institutions to do what they want with NO self examination of whether they are actually doing the right thing or perhaps in selfish and harmful ways.
