How should we view human life. Is it considered priceless, does it depend on how old you are, or can it have a price on it. When Ireland was in an economic depression Jonathan Swift decided to propose that people should sell their children for food since everyone was hungry. He made it seem as if he viewed human life as livestock. He compares the remaining children (those who weren’t eaten) to livestock.
He says that they should sell an infant carcass for 10 shillings which is technically 8 more shillings than the cost of the infant. He even goes as far as to suggest “the carcass; the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.” meaning that he wanted to sell children skin for clothes.
Now the last part of it was cannibalism. This was the last part that was morally wrong. Cannibalism is weird because we are told it is weird. If you really think about it we eat meat which used to be alive and if you weren’t told it was human meat you may not have minded.
In conclusion this proposal of Jonathan’s was a quite twisted idea in that he was willing to sell children for food. Now his idea wasn’t all that bad since it would give money to the poor and give food to the rich. his idea may have been fine but the execution and cannibalism made it very dark.