The naturalistic fallacy & gay rights
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
Massimo Pigliucci, New Humanist:
... John Paul II has stated that the reason gay marriages shouldn’t be allowed is because they are “unnatural,” and they are unnatural because they do not lead to procreation. Well, it is hard to disagree with the observation that gay unions don’t produce biological offspring, although the term “unnatural” hardly applies, because a lot of unions in nature--human and not--don’t yield progeny (e.g., bonobos, the pigmy chimpanzees, have sex in order to mend social relationships. If only we would follow such a wise example!). ...
David Hume, in his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), pointed out that there is no logical connection between what is (in nature) and what ought to be (in human morality). In other words, as both Bush and the Pope would probably readily admit if the point were pressed on them, just because something is not natural it doesn’t follow that it is immoral. Surely, flying (in airplanes, as both George and John Paul regularly do) is not natural for human beings, but I doubt either of them is going to call for a ban on air travel on moral grounds any time soon. ...
... While initially resistant to a biological interpretation of their sexual preferences, sectors of the gay community have recently been emphasizing research purportedly showing that homosexuality has at least in part a genetic component. Such research is controversial (scientifically, not morally) in itself, since it is often based on small samples, and since the genetic component may account for only a fraction of the variation in sexual orientation in the human population. ...
... But such biological “defense” of homosexuality is misguided for three important reasons. ...
Comments
Posted by: seb | January 14, 2004 09:58 PM