Message-ID: <s35257f0.075@crs.loc.gov> Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 16:12:37 -0500 From: Jonathan Sanford <mailto:JSANFORD@CRS.LOC.GOV> Subject: Re: Condoms..round or square? -Reply -Reply To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Dear JC,I think it is wonderful that you think people should be "ideal seekers". I agree that people should strive to act on the basis of ideal motives and to achieve ideal ends. However, for most people on this globe, aspirations to such ideals are beyond their capability. Their lives are constrained by many forces among which they must maneuver. If young girls can avoid getting HIV infections because they make their partners take precautions, then I think that is an absolute good. It doesn't matter what alternatives they might have explored in an ideal situation. Actually, as I've said in another post to David Johnson, a lot of young women are not in a position to demand that their partners use condoms. But total usage is another ideal. Since the best is the enemy of the good, I think it is wrong to argue that no action be taken unless the best action can be taken for the best means. I think pretty good action for pretty good reasons is acceptable, if it will save some lives. I presume you would agree that individual persons are at least as valuable as particular ideas.
Jon Sanford