the act of cannibalism to be wrong. If I let it proceed, when I could stop it, I'd be in the wrong.
Another illustration. The British Raj in India, attempting to stop the practice of widow-burning, aka "suttee". At the time, at least a good-sized group of Brahmins thought this to be correct. Charles Napier, appointed a governor in Bombay, had this to say:
You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
Some things must be fought for. The problem comes in deciding how far to go. Some tribes shape the skulls of infants, thereby potentially harming them. What do we do then? |
