Babies, Boyscouts, and Drought: Ethical Dilemmas Abound

toomanybabies.jpgToday’s headlines threw me into a quagmire of philosophical indecisiveness: Octuplets were born to a woman who lives with her parents and already has six children, the Boy Scouts have engaged in massive clear-cutting of their lands, and the California drought continues to pit the livelihoods of farmers against conservationists. How do we decide right from wrong when no laws have been broken? Do we have any context to judge right from wrong if we remove the dictates of religion?

In the case of the unnamed mother from Whittier, CA… we have a woman who already has six children who receives fertilization treatments from a doctor who supported her decision to produce EIGHT more babies in one pregnancy. She will undoubtedly receive gobs of free crap from private and corporate donors who say the children are a miracle! and seek to capitalize on all the free publicity. Religious people will claim God gave her those babies, despite the drugs and who knows what unnatural methods used to produce babies in a woman who did not conceive under God’s normal rules. (I am not at all opposed to IVF or other methods, but she already has SIX children?!) Did the doctors ask how a woman with six babies could claim to have fertility problems? Nope. They collected the cash. Here’s another headline for today, Medical Needs of 6.2 Million U.S. Kids Go Unmet.

About the Boy Scouts… this organization has always claimed to be stewards of the land, but according to the SF
Chronicle:

the investigation – a nationwide review by five newspapers of more than 400 timber harvests, court papers, property records, tax filings and other documents since 1990 – also found that:

– Scout councils have ordered the logging of more than 34,000 acres of forests – perhaps far more, as forestry records nationwide are incomplete.

– More than 100 scout groups – one-third of all Boy Scouts councils nationwide – have conducted timber harvests.

– Councils logged in or near protected wildlife habitat at least 53 times.

– Councils have authorized at least 60 clear-cutting operations and 35 salvage harvests, logging practices that some experts say harm the environment but maximize profits.

According to the article, Boy Scout Councils lost money when they disallowed gays and atheists from joining the organization. Logging helps to replenish those funds. Ka-ching!!

On the California drought… Well, newsflash: California is semi-arid and wouldn’t exist in its current form without water being moved about and injected into the places where the loudest lobbyists live. Agriculture is hugely important here, for the state and for the country, but when does agribusiness stop getting its way? When smelt are endangered. This drives a lot of people crazy, that human enterprise suffer at the hands of a rotten little stupid fish that no one cares about. But we live in an ecosystem, and to claim that we understand the intricacies of interdependence in this system has been a human downfall for too long. Let the smelt die, and then what goes next? It comes down, yet again, to money. I can live without strawberries or pay more for bell peppers to save the fish. Because sustainability is important to me. But what if sustainability has cost jobs for farmers? Some of those same farmers probably objected to auto industry bailouts. At what point do we bite the bullet and let people suffer job losses? California’s water politics run far too deep for one little duhpookie post, but I do expect to hear more and more as state populations continue to increase and climate change continues to lead us into drought. Somehow, while all the farmers complain, I can’t help thinking about Mexican farmers and the Rio Grande that no longer reaches their land.

Self-interest, or the good of the few, versus grander interests like balancing the needs of the planet. This question seems to be coming up more and more often as our collective unconscious grapples with our new responsibilities as global citizens.

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January 30, 2009 | Filed Under Perfect World, Thinking Too Hard 

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