Respect for life is pretty low in China in other ways, take a look at the experience of having a baby:
China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
131–140 of 254 posts
Re: China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
#132Why does the west continue to tolerate China as a trading partner? China is pretty obviously building their empire. They, as a government, appear to have almost no regard whatsoever for human life. They, as a government, appear to have absolutely no regard whatsoever for national sovereignty. They, as a government, appear to have absolutely no regard for the environment. It just seems completely inevitable to me that…
It seems that an ever-increasing number of basic behavioral decisions facing western populations have large abstract consequences and can be described by the basic shape:
A) Option that marginally (and in some cases significantly) increases personal convenience while incrementally undermining the long-term probability of western moral aspirations maturing to their full promise and forming the basis of a more human-centric global future.
or
B) Option that rejects the temptation of new gadgetry / marginal personal convenience improvements but that withholds some small amount of fuel from the growing moral conflagration. This option is increasingly associated with social circle friction.
This is perfectly exemplified, on a much less serious level than human organ harvesting and trade policy, by the Chrome vs. FireFox situation, or by the choice to use FaceBook.
There needs to be a realization that the current version of extreme economic policies governing large multi-national corporations like Google, FaceBook, Exxon, etc., are diametrically opposed to western moral aspirations w.r.t human rights, and are in fact fueling the demise of said aspirations. These corporations are not "American" or "Chinese" or "Other Nationality" in any way that matters for actual human beings, but exist as increasingly-autonomous global entities that are radically reshaping the geopolitical landscape and diverting increasing amounts of power to actors that have an open disdain for the human condition. People who oppose the current trends of inequality growth, corruption normalization, environmental exploitation, human rights abuses, and other deleterious effects of extreme capitalism don't seem to have an option other than to reject the consumerist culture / mindset that it's all built upon.
Re: China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
>We (the U.S) tolerate their disrespect for human rights because we also do not respect human rights I'm sorry but this statement is just absolutely and completely ridiculous. I don't know if you've either never been to The United States, or you've never left The United States, but the difference between the respect that we have for human rights, and the respect that much of the rest of the world has, is stark.
How many children do you hold imprisoned right now? How many children have been defending themselves in courts recently? How many women, trans or otherwise have been suffering at the hands of your anti-women/abortion movement? You don't even prosecute the people who commit atrocities in your own country, much less those that commit them in others. You don't have respect for human rights or values. As an institution,…
Abortion is itself a breach of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including articles 3 (right to life), 6 (recognition as a person before the law), 7 (equality before the law).
Re: China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
#134When I was younger, maybe five years ago or so, I was living in Boston and I'd consistently see a pack of Chinese protestors outside the public library at Copley (very popular area) holding up signs, looking to gain attention for this very issue. They spoke to me as best as they could, handed me a pamphlet with hard-to-parse English but nonetheless gruesome descriptions, and asked for my signature along with any othe…
The book "God Is Red" by Liao Yiwu is a great book that deals with religious persecution in China.
Edited to add: By a man that is better known for his writing on political persecution, IIRC. However, this is the only book I've read and can personally recommend.
Re: China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
#135[deleted]
Re: China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many children do you hold imprisoned right now? How many children have been defending themselves in courts recently? How many women, trans or otherwise have been suffering at the hands of your anti-women/abortion movement? You don't even prosecute the people who commit atrocities in your own country, much less those that commit them in others. You don't have respect for human rights or values. As an institution,…
On the scale of human rights, having your rights restricted in planning children (ie, restricting abortion) and having your organs removed are very far apart.
Having a policy of actively kidnapping children from immigrants and then selling them in auctions while dumping the parents on a different continent?
Having a long established policy of sterilizing minorities? Or wait, was that Canada? Nothing that US would ever have as a policy, of course not.
Re: China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
#137Organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_Go...
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Re: China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
At first look, from a Western perspective, this is 100% clear-cut morally bad. But I've also learned a limited amount about the Chinese moral perspective in college, and it can be a useful exercise to examine how someone who doesn't have a Judeo-Christian/Locke moral framework may view this practice. In some ways, the harvesting of organs from political prisoners can be viewed as the trolley problem. Killing one poli…
You could take almost anyone, really. Just measure every citizen according to their contributions to society, and when four productive and useful citizens have need of a heart, a liver, two kidneys and a pancreas between them, just harvest a citizen that's not as productive as all of these four combined. Of course, you maximize utility by choosing someone who does not contribute a lot to society, and _ideally_ someon…
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You could take almost anyone, really. Just measure every citizen according to their contributions to society, and when four productive and useful citizens have need of a heart, a liver, two kidneys and a pancreas between them, just harvest a citizen that's not as productive as all of these four combined.
On what basis do we determine who gets life-critical medical care?
Re: China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
#139Organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_Go...
> "According to the reports, political prisoners, mainly Falun Gong practitioners, are being executed "on demand" in order to provide organs to recipients." Wild... I had no idea this was going on. There are a lot of things about China that I disagree with, but this might be the worst thing I've heard so far.
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Re: China harvested organs from political prisoners, says tribunal
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
>We (the U.S) tolerate their disrespect for human rights because we also do not respect human rights I'm sorry but this statement is just absolutely and completely ridiculous. I don't know if you've either never been to The United States, or you've never left The United States, but the difference between the respect that we have for human rights, and the respect that much of the rest of the world has, is stark.
The US talks about respecting human rights, but has no problem with 1 million dead Iraqi civilians. Individual Americans may respect human rights. Just like individual Chinese do as well. But when you challenge them as a nation, well, then the needs of the stong outweigh the needs of the weak.
>>The US talks about respecting human rights, but has no problem with 1 million dead Iraqi civilians.
So you took a poll, "do you give a rats @ss that 1 Million Iraqis were killed by USA" and most people didn't care? Let's tone it down, USA did not go there to kill a million people, it happened because of the war, and Saddam might have killed 2 mil if he was alive for Arab Spring. Not saying that Iraq war was justified but there's a huge difference.