Famine in Somalia

Once again there's a famine in an African country, and the news is focusing almost solely on how many children are suffering because of it (the younger they are the greater the hysteria). IF I was going to use age to distinguish between the value of a human life I almost certainly wouldn't emphasise the importance of a child's life over an adults for the following reasons:

1) Adults can always have more children, whereas children won't get very far if their parents die.
2) Animals are often categorised according to what age of human their intelligence matches. Pigs for instance, are as intelligent as a 6 or 7 year old child. So, any child with the intellectual capacity of a farm animal could possibly be harvested for sustenance should the need arise.
3) Apart from intellectual capacity, emotionally very young children are also not as able to process distress as a measure of self pity. Therefore, their physical distress has a more superficial emotional impact than in adults.
4) A child can hinder an adult in seeking help/treatment/food, thus endangering both lives.

I'm thinking of writing in to the BBC news department with the above points, but thought I'd give you all the chance to express your support before I do :happy:

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Originally Posted by Squeamous

Once again there's a famine in an African country, and the news is focusing almost solely on how many children are suffering because of it (the younger they are the greater the hysteria). IF I was going to use age to distinguish between the value of a human life I almost certainly wouldn't emphasise the importance of a child's life over an adults for the following reasons:

1) Adults can always have more children, whereas children won't get very far if their parents die.
2) Animals are often categorised according to what age of human their intelligence matches. Pigs for instance, are as intelligent as a 6 or 7 year old child. So, any child with the intellectual capacity of a farm animal could possibly be harvested for sustenance should the need arise.
3) Apart from intellectual capacity, emotionally very young children are also not as able to process distress as a measure of self pity. Therefore, their physical distress has a more superficial emotional impact than in adults.
4) A child can hinder an adult in seeking help/treatment/food, thus endangering both lives.

I'm thinking of writing in to the BBC news department with the above points, but thought I'd give you all the chance to express your support before I do :happy:

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While wholeheartedly agreeing with most of your points there are a couple of bones of contention with point 2
First of all there is the obvious 'taboo', since we have become civilised it is largely frowned upon to eat one another (unless your plane crashes high in the Andes) although there are like the one above many other recent examples and some people like Jeffrey Dahmer have even made it a personal cult.
On a purely sustenance level, your average starved african isn't going to be a spectacular source of nutrients in any case and I suspect the small ones will be even less so ?
There is always the medical argument too, eating others can cause New Variant CJD in humans exactly the same as the 'Kuru' disease in Papua New Guinea.
So if we can overcome the taboo, the russian roulette of New Variant CJD and the generally unappetising stringyness then I think the argument is a win!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Artemis

While wholeheartedly agreeing with most of your points there are a couple of bones of contention with point 2
First of all there is the obvious 'taboo', since we have become civilised it is largely frowned upon to eat one another (unless your plane crashes high in the Andes) although there are like the one above many other recent examples and some people like Jeffrey Dahmer have even made it a personal cult.
On a purely sustenance level, your average starved african isn't going to be a spectacular source of nutrients in any case and I suspect the small ones will be even less so ?
There is always the medical argument too, eating others can cause New Variant CJD in humans exactly the same as the 'Kuru' disease in Papua New Guinea.
So if we can overcome the taboo, the russian roulette of New Variant CJD and the generally unappetising stringyness then I think the argument is a win!

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Your points are taken and duly noted. However, children can indeed be prepared without any risk to the health of adults. As long as you avoid eating any part of the brain and spinal cord you should be fine. Also, people eat frogs' legs and there isn't much meat on them. I should think in comparison a child, no matter how small and malnourished, would make at the very least an appetising snack, or perhaps starter. The taboo is something we could work on, perhaps with an advertising campaign starring well known cannibals.

I think there is often a plea for "clean" drinking water; therefore, it follows that one should also emphasize quality in the food supplies. On that point, I offer, "tender" as a criteria worth considering...