Alan Turing Should Have Chosen Celibacy

Con says that Alan Turing in choosing celibacy would have been trying to secure for others a freedom denied to himself. However, this is not entirely true. Imagine if you will that Alan staying alive and continuing his work had resulted in the internet appearing in the 1960s. He would've been able to use it as well. And the internet would have helped people living under oppressive regimes to communicate earlier on. This could've lead to earlier democratization and the spread of political freedoms. In fact an earlier internet could've helped the gay rights movement to advance earlier. http://www.theatlantic.com... Online social networking helped gay rights activists to successfully push for legalizing gay marriage in some states in the United States. Even assuming technology still didn't advance to the point of there being an internet during his lifetime, Alan still would have produced more technological advances he could've justly felt pride in and would have been honored for. And what ever boost these gave to the economy or to national security (of Britain and her NATO allies) would've benefited him as well. Then there's also all the little pleasures of life. Good food, good conversations, good friends, plays, movies, TV shows, travel. All of these pleasures he could have legally had without risking his career. In choosing celibacy he would've been giving up only one pleasure. Taking your life means giving up every pleasure that would've otherwise been yours after that point. Con states that freedom is important. I agree that it is. Freedom is an important factor in overall social well-being. However, Turing being convicted and committing suicide did not help anyone towards freedom. At the time there likely very few people who looked upon what happened to him as a reason to fight for gay rights. While a significant number of people are making that connection in modern times these are people who already made other connections and understandings. They are people who already supported gay rights. Also had he chosen celibacy he could've still been openly gay. In doing so he would've done a lot more to promote everyone's freedoms, as opposed to just securing that freedom for himself every so often during sexual activity. But even if he had been both celibate and closeted he still would've been doing the right thing compared to risking and ultimately destroying his career and preventing himself from having the opportunity to make more contributions for the good of humanity. Another point, sexual desire is just a chemical reaction so allowing it to control you, to make you engage in sexual acts when you know the potential consequences are severely negative is not freedom. Freedom would be acknowledging the urge but not fulfilling it because you know the long-term consequences for yourself and others will be better served by not indulging it. This is not to say that people should never have sex or that everyone who has sex is enslaved by it. A moderate amount of sexual activity in and of itself is healthy. It may even be worth it in a society where you could wind up sentenced or outcast for your choice of sexual activity. If it happened you could use the experience to be an activist and educate society about how it is wrong for persecuting you, and while at the time it wouldn't have had a tremendous effect it could've helped to push the movement forward a tiny bit. But that only justifies it for either an ordinary person, or for a dedicated political activist or social scientists whose position in society would allow them to have more of an effect. Alan Turing wasn't just an ordinary person, he was a genius. He could've provided a greater benefit both to himself and to humanity as a whole by being celibate. And although there still would be considerations to be made as far as how it could effect his career and hence his contributions he could've promoted gay rights a lot more effectively by having chosen celibacy while also coming out as a celibate gay man, and would've had the bonus of promoting a greater appreciation for the common good when he explained that he was choosing to be celibate to avoid being put in a position where society would no longer allow him to contribute. Therefore it would have been the morally right thing to do to choose celibacy.