Is the buying and selling of people morally right?

Based on the substantial ideas provided by John Locke and other readings, President Schwarzenegger?s proposal to allow the buying of substitutes for the draft is wrong because it promotes the devaluation of humans based on their economic status and opposes the theory of utilitarianism as well as the concept of distribution.

One Prime reason why the proposal is wrong is the concept that buying a human is a form of slavery and a portrayal of inequality. All humans are born to the same advantages of nature and thereby are equal. In an equal society there should be no subordination or subjection.(Locke chp II). Treating people with respect is an important part of a fair society. The government allowing for the buying and selling of substitutes for the draft is equivalent to declaring that richer people are superior to the poor and thus the poor deserve to suffer. On the other hand, the poor selling their selves as substitute would corrupt the meaning of being human.

Portrait of John Locke, by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Oi...

Law was an ardent disciple of John Locke.

Portrait of John Locke.

Locke states that ?But through this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of license though men in that state, have and uncontrollable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has no liberty to destroy himself or so much as any creature in his possession.? The proposal allows for self destruction because there is no guarantee that a soldier would return from a war alive.

The proposal also promotes the exploitation of the economically disenfranchised because the money incentive of selling yourself as a substitute would coerce the poor people to do what conflicts with their moral beliefs. For instance, in the case of Baby ?M? (regarding a contract dispute arising out of a surrogacy contract) the court based its

decision on the fact that the surrogate mother...