> > Except that all human beings, of all "races", ARE my own
> > kind. The same can't be said for blowflies.
>
>It has been demonstrated, I belive, that human and chimp genetic makeup
>is more than 95% identical. Where do you draw the line? Old fashioned
>racists believed that certain races are "subhuman."
But there is no basis for their belief, so I don't see any more need to address that hypothetical than I do to address the "if pigs had wings..." hypothetical.
Hence my premise remains. Unscathed. All human beings, of all races, ARE my own kind. therefor the inference I draw is that I should be more concerned with the value given to human life than I am with the value of a blowfly's life, because my life is also human life and any slight increase in the exchange rate accruing to human life increases my own chance of survival.
A blowfly may share 80% of the same genes as me, but that is meaningless. Mein Kampf largely shares the same alphabet as the UN Declaration of Human Rights, but the characters are arranged quite differently.
But to spell it out for you, the difference between a human and a blowfly, or even a chimp, is that humans have the inherent capacity to SHARE a set of values. Respect for human life is thus a value that can be created by our shared capacity to reciprocate that respect. Enriching us all. Or diminishing us all by a lack of respect for the life of others.
The currency is devalued by any and all exceptions. There will be unavoidable exceptions unfortunately, I reluctantly accept that. But I'm not willing to concede any avoidable exceptions to the concept that all life is valuable. Its the same reason I reject the notion that the life of Jews have no value. Sure I'm not a Jew, so it doesn't effect me directly if someone decides to round them all up and gas them. "Why worry?" You argue. "What about the poor blowies that are being exterminated in even greater numbers?"
Simply this my friend, if I don't speak out when they come to exterminate people different from me, if I don't protest that they are entitled to life, then that leaves me very poorly equipped morally, to argue that my life is something to be valued.
Solidarity. Look it up in the dictionary.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas