[extropy-chat] Stealing organs finally a crime...

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Wed Dec 10 00:09:42 UTC 2003


--- Spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> >
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-920726,00.html
> > 
> > Don't know what took the Brits so long, but they
> finally made it a
> > crime to steal someone's organs without their
> consent...
> 
> It's still legal, even encouraged in this country. 
> I don't
> recall giving my consent to have my foreskin
> removed.

At the time, you were probably the (effectively) legal
property of those who had just given birth to you, on
the grounds that you were not (yet) mentally competent
to give consent.  Similarly, you probably did not give
consent to be removed from that warm, nourishing
pocket of flesh where you had gestated - most people
who undergo that experience are quite upset about it
at the time - nor, thereafter, to be fed, clothed, or
sheltered.

Now, there may be something to be said for adjusting
the standards of age-related mental competency.  But
the fundamental legal concept (a newborn person is not
a full citizen until a certain event happens - an
event that is likely, even automatic, for all citizens
before they gain much power to protest about it, to
avoid abuse of the rule) remains sound.



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