Is It Okay To Compromise Human Rights For Any Greater Good?

[goopamario63]

I personally don't agree to this viewpoint.

I have began to ponder over this since the time I have begun to follow the news regarding Europe's refugee crisis/migrant crisis. I know that the governments of Europe are trying to prevent overpopulation (it does create a burden on the country's resources, I accept that) by shutting off their borders, but isn't that against human rights? (op cit. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights- http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a13)

The word 'overpopulation' has led me to think about China and it's one-child policy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy) While it can be argued that the greater good is to control the population to ensure optimum resources for all, isn't that again a violation of human rights? (op cit. Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights- http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a16) By the way, China's stance on human rights has been debated by many, such as other nations and NGO organizations. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_China)

Another argument could be despite China being overpopulated, it ranks 91st in terms of HDI. (High Human Development) (http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-1-human-development-index-and-its-components)

[Harmless]

I feel like the only reason we're overpopulated is because we have not acquired any new territory in freaking forever. We have yet to establish new living locations in other areas on Earth/Outer Space, be it above/below waters, higher in the sky, etc.

[-BY]

We have yet to establish new living locations in other areas on Earth/Outer Space, be it above/below waters, higher in the sky, etc.

Well. They do check if Mars is an option, though. I'd personally still think that it'd make more sense to keep controlling birth rates a little. Not in the sense of punishing those with more childs. But people starting to realize that we're about to face a great problem caused by ourselves. However. Watching the situation in germany, where more people die than being born and similar situations in other countries where children start to be seen as bother mostly, I could imagine this all reaching a peak one day. Wether it's happening "natural" over time as it did in other places or forced due to lack of ressources and fights following from that.

[*Emelia K. Fletcher]

I feel like the only reason we're overpopulated is because we have not acquired any new territory in freaking forever

i'm going to point to the less developed parts of Africa where better healthcare and contraception haven't been introduced and so families must be large
i'm going to point to the less developed parts of Africa frantically and repeatedly

[1018peter]

The overpopulation of the humankind will slowly stop as we advance in economy and technology. Once all countries hit the state of "Fully-Developed",birth rate will drop globally.

Earth still has plenty of areas left undeveloped. If we turn parts of Africa into huge crop fields,Africa wouldn't be constantly challenged by hunger.

[Oranjui]

Earth still has plenty of areas left undeveloped. If we turn parts of Africa into huge crop fields,Africa wouldn't be constantly challenged by hunger.

Land development, whether agricultural, industrial, or urban, isn't necessarily a good thing. They all can have drastic effects on the environment if we aren't careful (yes, giant crop fields across Africa would potentially seriously ♥♥♥♥ up the environment really badly because of irrigation, pollution, habitat destruction, pesticides, fertilizers, etc), and ultimately end up leaving the Earth uninhabitable, forcing us to migrate to another planet. I'd rather have that be a voluntary choice made for the sake of exploration and science, and maybe eventually large-scale colonization instead of due to our society continually polluting and destroying the world to the point where we have no choice but to leave. (i.e. an Interstellar scenario is a bad thing)

Maybe it feels wrong, but I think that focusing on being "ethical" isn't what we need right now. Instead, we need to focus on how we can stop or at least slow down the rate at which we're devastating this planet before it's too late. That may involve more strict population control, it may involve more strict emissions control, it may involve more strict consumption control. Whatever it takes, I'd really like for this planet not to be ruined by our own selfishness, even if it means giving up certain personal liberties for the greater good.

I guess there are probably better ways of going about this than a one-child policy, though.

[Doram]

This post by NanTheDark was thumbed up by: 3

ChaosYoshi (October 11th, 2015, 10:04 am) • Doram (October 4th, 2015, 7:09 am) • Harmless (October 11th, 2015, 9:52 pm)