# Wouldn't It Make More Sense to Kill Old People than Babies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 5, 2001, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643 "2001-10-05T19:20:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/21 "2001-10-05T20:52:15Z")
Condolences to **pldennison& Fenris** on loosing their grandma’s and then being faced with this OP. As facetious as you may have attempted to be, the OP is presenting the false analogy that some how, society has deemed it necessary to ‘kill off’ a certain # of persons, therefore, wouldn’t it make sense to kill off those who had reached the ‘end’ of their productivity vs. those who’d yet to begin theirs? However, even as presented it’s not a convincing point. 1. The issue, of course, is **not** that society has deemed it necessary to ‘kill off’ x number of it’s members. 2. The people in our society, of course do not at all agree on the concept of ‘when does life begin’, so for many of us, your presentation is ‘killing people vs. preventing cells from developing’. 3. If the ‘whole issue’ to you as presented is 'productivity, what then do you do with the newborn but severly handicapped baby? What would you say that Bin Laden’s mommy should have done? hmmmm? 4. PLease, for the good of all humanity, for the blood pressure of those of us posting here, I beg you always present your OP to at least 3 mods (your pick) before submitting. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/22 "2001-10-05T20:58:17Z")
> [@](#): > > I have been to many old folks homes and I feel them. Goodness! Those poor old people! No wonder your grandfather says getting old is hell. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/23 "2001-10-05T21:00:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Why not just retitle the thread “Wouldn’t it make more sense to kill old people, instead of letting women make their own decisions about their own bodies?” Let me know the next time a woman’s appendix or kidney uses its little brain desperately to struggle to evade being poked, stabbed, and pinched to death. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/24 "2001-10-05T21:03:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wildest Bill \* > \*\* If y’all want to ban me because I used an extreme example \*\* **WB** , if you get banned, it’ll be for trolling, not for any _extreme example_. ---
**Author:** ![Wildest\_Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Wildest\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wildest_Bill)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/25 "2001-10-05T21:05:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beadalin \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > I have been to many old folks homes and I feel them. > > Goodness! Those poor old people! No wonder your grandfather says getting old is hell. \*\* LOL I wouldn’t have let that slide either. Of course I meant “I feel for them”. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/26 "2001-10-05T21:06:03Z")
I tell ya, Bill. I got what you were going for in the OP. I understood you were using extremes. I’m also of the opinion that your little passion play is blindly ignorant (what else is new). You have an agenda. You are playing on emotions to further that agenda. The issue of abortion rights is so far removed from rights of the elderly that comparing the two as you’ve done isn’t so much offensive, in my book, as it is retarded. The only connection between the two is a carbon base. If I wanted you to leave the apples in my yard alone, I wouldn’t feed you a story about the plight of the oranges in Peru. Get it? We understand your points of view only too well. Stop beating around the bush (you’re not very good at it). State your position, back it up, stop talking out of your alimentary canal and try out that whole thinking deal once or twice. Or go somewhere else “to make people think”. We really don’t need your help in that regard. ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/27 "2001-10-05T21:13:37Z")
Give people some credit, **WB** , everyone is all too aware of what this repulsive attempt at satire is getting at. Do you really thing that you, **WB** are whooshing people with the heady themes you present? There is nothing here to discuss, you merely are stating once again your view on abortion. Since there is nothing to discuss, and the killing of the elderly was obviously added to elicit a strong response, this is clearly a troll. ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/28 "2001-10-05T21:14:00Z")
The post is just to make us think? Why? Do you ever do the same yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/29 "2001-10-05T21:18:09Z")
I can’t believe I’m even bothering to respond, but > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wildest Bill \* > \*\*Lets look at some points. > > 1. Old people have nothing to look forward to when they are old(I am talking about bed ridden old people that just sleep and eat oh and complain)except death. They have already lived the best years. \*\*Nonsense, old people, even bedridden ones only have a poor quality of life if that’s all we are prepared to give them > [@](#): > > \*\*2. They are done contributing to society as a whole and now have become a drag on society. \*\*So their entire accumulated lifetime’s worth of experience and wisdom isn’t a worthwhile contribution? Pshaw! > [@](#): > > \*\*3. They are hard to talk to because you have to yell and then they still don’t know what you said. \*\*…and the fruit of the spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, **Patience** … > [@](#): > > \*\*4. SS could go to helping troubled families instead of old people. \*\*erm, nothing much to say on this one, but don’t take that as agreememnt > [@](#): > > \*\*5. They also usually make you feel bad to be around(they kind of smell) and they make you think about your own mortality. \*\*babies and teenagers often smell bad too. Don’t you have some sort of control over your thought life? (anyway, sometimes, the sight of young children splashing about at the beach makes me think of my own mortality, so what’s your point?) > [@](#): > > \*\*Well just from these examples(I could think of more) \*\*Yep, I believe that > [@](#): > > \*\*it would make more sense to kill old people that are bed ridden that babies still in the womb. I wonder why pro-choice people don’t push this more. It actually makes more logical sense even though both are very tragic. \*\*where is the connection between these two things? do you think that if you stopped all abortions from happening, people would be looking around for someone, anyone to kill? Abortion and the killing of old people aren’t counterparts, you’re making no sense at all. If you’re going to oppose abortion, you need to be truthful about your reasons; if you feel (as I suspect) that it’s an offence against God, then say that; making up all sorts of pseudo-reasons does your cause no good at all > [@](#): > > \*\*This post is just to make you think. \*\* think what exactly? Honestly WB, do you start these threads for the attention or something? [sub]You might think from all this that I’m Pro-Abortion (or whatever you call it),or that I’m about to claim to be Pro-life, but the truth lies elsewhere; I’m pro-human, that’s all I can say on the subject[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/30 "2001-10-05T21:27:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wildest Bill \* > \*\*This post is just to make you think. \*\* You don’t want to know what I think. ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/31 "2001-10-05T21:42:44Z")
You know, **Bill** , you just went too far in your example. See, what you should have suggested is that all women who get pregnant and then decide they want an abortion should be subjected to brain death themselves - and their body used to keep the child alive until it could survive outside. (Doesn’t matter how the woman got pregnant, and after all, she’s lived her life, right?) :rolleyes: I’m so glad I don’t live in a world where the logic in the OP makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/32 "2001-10-05T21:45:15Z")
WB, My Wife and I lost our first two babies through miscarriage at 22 weeks, while she was recovering in hospital, on both occasions there were teenage women in the same ward who were there to have abortions simply because they hadn’t been bothered to use contraception; this upset me greatly at the time and it still makes me hurt that we couldn’t (at the time) have the children we so wanted when other people were just too careless, but in spite of all this, I still can’t bring myself to side with your rabid unreasoning stance on this issue. ---
**Author:** ![Wildest\_Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Wildest\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wildest_Bill)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/33 "2001-10-05T21:53:22Z")
Mangetout, I am so sorry. My wife sister has tried everything for years and just recently she had twins. So don’t give up hope. And in retrospect this thread didn’t come off like I intended to. I was hoping to put something in such a different light it would make people see abortion from another direction. Obviously, it didn’t work. I would ask the mods to close this thread if they would. And keep trying Mangetout. ---
**Author:** ![ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/34 "2001-10-05T21:54:13Z")
**Bill** , do you think about the ramifications of what’s coming across on your keyboard? Do you ever stop to think about the potential arguments you could get to your inane posts? Before you post, why don’t you sit down and make a list of pros and cons for your own argument so that you can anticipate how stupid it is. Grandparents and old people FOSTER a family’s ability to have more children. They don’t HINDER it. Hopefully, you know what those two capitalized words mean. -L ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/35 "2001-10-05T21:58:57Z")
FTR, we did keep trying and we have two [wonderful](http://www.eat-it.freeserve.co.uk/family/) children now. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/36 "2001-10-05T21:59:20Z")
I was typing a post to **Fenris** ’ Pit thread when it got locked. Bill, read the above post by **mangetout**. When someone with his story tells you that they can’t agree with your stance on an issue, doesn’t that tell you ANYTHING?!? God help me, **Euty** will continue to slay WB Pit threads, so I must remain calm… I don’t believe that you were stating ideas you don’t agree with just to get a reaction or to “make people think.” I think we are once again seeing the real you, and I don’t like it. Oh wait, I forgot to address your OP. As an argument, it is hopelessly flawed. As a stance, it is pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![Wildest\_Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Wildest\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wildest_Bill)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/37 "2001-10-05T22:04:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > \*\*FTR, we did keep trying and we have two [wonderful](http://www.eat-it.freeserve.co.uk/family/) children now. \*\* They are so cute! Congradulations. Enjoy now they do grow up to be these mutant monster called teenagers. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![magdalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@magdalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magdalene)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/38 "2001-10-05T22:14:06Z")
Bill, I didn’t post seriously the first time, because I didn’t take your OP seriously. All of your points about old people’s productivity and quality of life are wrong. Your analogy comparing abortion to killing old people is wrong. If you have an actual point try making it in a clear, valid way - email your OP to a mod or two or someone on the boards you trust first. ---
**Author:** ![Wildest\_Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Wildest\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wildest_Bill)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/39 "2001-10-05T22:36:27Z")
Mag, Those are some good suggestions. Maybe I will email euty or manhattan(I know he doesn’t like me but at least he is fair) before I start posting this type of thread again. Once again, would the mods please lock this thread. ---
**Author:** ![ModernRonin2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@ModernRonin2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ModernRonin2)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643/40 "2001-10-05T22:58:12Z")
It depends if you want to talk about short term or long term. In the short term it makes more sense to kill old people than babies. Right now we are headed towards a glut of old people. Social Security will probably go down the tubes. Etc, etc. Kill all the elderly, and these problems go away… at least for a while. But what happens after the next baby boom? Well those children will eventually grow up and eventually they will get old! And we’ll have a whole bunch old people again. What are we gonna do, kill 'em all a second time? ;] Nah, we gotta strike at the heart of this problem. Nip it in the bud, as it were. So… KILL THE BABIES!! KILL THEM!! KILL THEM ALL!!! MUAHAHAHAAH! Er… uh… I mean… that is… ah… um… [http://www.theonion.com/onion3402/heatelderly.html](http://www.theonion.com/onion3402/heatelderly.html) [http://www.babysmasher.com](http://www.babysmasher.com) -Ben 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wouldnt-it-make-more-sense-to-kill-old-people-than-babies/85643.md?page=1)