Is Human Reproduction Un-Ethical?

[Clueless Morgan]

The likelihood of ethical people behaving unethically is a practical guarantee.  I'm not sure any person on the forums could claim to be 100% ethical 100% of the time.

People who behave unethically are, by definition, not ethical people. 

But I did not say that it is an impossibility, just that the likelihood of it happening is not statistically significant.

Boru

Then there's no such thing as an ethical person because everyone at some point in their life has behaved both ethically and unethically, thereby making everyone unethical.

Brometheus Wrote:

The assumption being that because it has been so, it will continue to be, without exception?

Do you think that 'statistically insignificant' means 'without exception'?

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Clueless Morgan Wrote:

The likelihood of ethical people behaving unethically is a practical guarantee.  I'm not sure any person on the forums could claim to be 100% ethical 100% of the time.

I find it interesting that more than one person seems to have interpreted that as a claim that ethical people are 100% ethical and act ethically 100% of the time.

First off, could you make sure that your quote tags are attributing the quotes to the correct person?  The first quote was said by Brometheus, not me, and the second was was mine, not Boru's.


As for addressing the 100% ethical part, Boru's premise said that

2. The likelihood that highly ethical people will behave unethically is not statistically significant.

Which I disagree with.  Ethical people regularly behave unethically.  It's not statistically insignificant, it's a statistical guarantee.  What could be argued is whether the unethical behavior is mildly unethical or majorly unethical and where that dividing line falls.

Most ethical people commit mildly unethical acts but we nevertheless still call them ethical people - which is why I say that it's a statistical guarantee that ethical people nevertheless behave unethically.

What do we call an otherwise ethical person who commits one majorly unethical act in their life?  Are they still an ethical person? How many unethical acts (minor or major) must one commit before they lose the label "ethical person"?

If Boru is limiting "unethical" behavior to committing repeated, majorly unethical acts, then I would agree that ethical people behaving in such an unethical manner would not be statistically significant because they would no longer be considered ethical people.