[andy58-in-nh]

I disagree. Our children are ours by choice and what we do for them is likewise voluntary. But it is also informed by moral values, which dictate responsibility for those who we bring into being until they are able to care for themselves. It is also informed by love, which Ms. Rand did not deny as a human value; she only insisted that it be guided by a rational basis other than pity or guilt.

Unlike her, however, I am a religious Objectivist and not an atheist. Her mistake in that regard was to mistake all faith for mindless mysticism. I believe that faith can sometimes be informed by reason and the evidence of one's senses as well. That belief does not invalidate the fundamental epistemology of Objectivism which holds that reality exists and that a thing is itself regardless of our perception.

[r9etb]

Our children are ours by choice and what we do for them is likewise voluntary.

By that logic, you are basically saying that parents who let their children starve should not be prosecuted.... Are you sure about that?