Dr. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” mockingly describes a plan to help Ireland’s increasing amount children born from poor parents. He claims that he will make them “beneficial to the public” and relieve their suffering. However, his proposal takes a dark turn. Dr. Swift starts to write about repurposing the newborn of beggars to become food for people who are more well off. Apparently, babies of the impoverished are not much use alive, rather they provide more value to society when eaten. This proposal is much deeper than eating babies, though.
The idea that we should prioritize the collective people’s needs over an individual’s humanity is absurd. The objective of a society is to accomplish things that no single person can, and to protect the rights of the people participating in it. Taking one’s life as a newborn, no matter how many others it supposedly benefits, should be completely out of any organization’s power.
Additionally, personal liberty also has to be valued too. Although one could argue that the baby would be more useful as supper than a hopeless beggar, it is not up to society to decide whether someone’s life is worth taking for their profit. No matter how many people are in favor, the choice belongs to the individual. Nobody can dictate if someone gets to live, even if their future seems hopeless.
In conclusion, society was not made to control people. because the collective good does not get to determine the choices of an individual.