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Infanticide

Infanticide

Heartwrenching Debate

On one side are evangelical Christian missionaries campaigning against infanticide they claim is still widely in practice among some ancient tribes of Brazil. On the other side is the Brazilian government, which claims that the missionaries are exaggerating how many babies are killed in the name of religious conversion, and by doing so, assisting in the demise of the nation's ancient civilizations. ABC News correspondent Dan Harris takes a hard look at a delicate debate.
Ref. ABC Nightline

Infanticide

I believe we should not force our values onto other people. Self-determination and free agency are inalienable rights. However, there are some things that are just plain wrong and I think this is one of them. Granted these people have been living in the jungles of South America, but this is one area where I do not believe it is wrong to educate and enlighten them. Modern medicine can do so much. These innocent children are being murdered in the name of mercy.

I found the complete article on this, and one of the things they said was:

Source 3

Think of the joy that would be lost from this world if we exterminated every child with any kind of disability or was born out of wedlock. Every child has value and should be cherished.

Infanticide Beliefs Religious General

I think education and help from outsides can change some practices but other practices will take a lot of time to change. I am not sure how we as outsiders can get some changes into their culture and not change their ways or beliefs in a way that they are still who they are.

Infanticide

Yes it would be nice to stop this but one has to look at the total impact and how to implement it so as not to start a cycle that will create a population explosion and possible starvation in future generations.

Infanticide

That is a big thing and will us or someone else stepping in force them to a more modern way of life? Will they lose their culture and just be part of the many instead of the few?

Infanticide

I do not see a problem with someone losing a culture if that culture is a culture of death.

If cultural identity is lost because we want to preserve the life of innocent children, then I say good riddance. Cultural relativism can be very dangerous if we are not willing to step in to save lives because we fear changing the fundamentals of a society.

What is wrong with changing who they are. They apparently need a fundamental change as they are killing children. I would not lose sleep if they changed or lost some beliefs (such as killing a child because they have a deformity or aren't perfect). In our own society we are very close to this, when we abort our children because they will not come out perfect. Someone needs to come in and change our society, and it would not be a loss if we lost some of our worship for the religion of convenience when it comes to our unborn children.

We should not hold the preservation of ancient societies above the preservation of the individual life of a child. If we do, we can consider ourselves complicit in their actions.

Infanticide

You are right Dbackers things like this do need to be stopped. Whether it is children or old people or who ever.

A complete over haul is this trick while not infringing on their personal freedom.

I guess no matter how one attacks this, it comes to imposing correct moral value into another society. The other society will change but they can still live off the lands as long as we can keep the desire for technology from them. How many tribes have been brought to famine and poverty because modern ways were given to them before their culture was ready for it. It is hard but not impossible to achieve.