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- Newsgroups: talk.abortion
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!spool.mu.edu!nigel.msen.com!heifetz!rotag!kevin
- From: kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy)
- Subject: Re: Blackmun calls the Roe v. Wade dividing line ""arbitrary""
- Message-ID: <1993Jan10.031948.15558@rotag.mi.org>
- Organization: Who, me???
- References: <+j82dp#@rpi.edu> <C0FBKp.BzK@news.cso.uiuc.edu> <1993Jan6.154210.3147@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
- Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 03:19:48 GMT
- Lines: 31
-
- In article <1993Jan6.154210.3147@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> mcochran@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mark A. Cochran) writes:
- >In article <C0FBKp.BzK@news.cso.uiuc.edu> vengeanc@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu () writes:
- >
- >>I will give you a moral absolute.
- >>
- >>Murder is wrong.
- >>
- >Definition of murder:
- >1. to kill (a human being) unlawfully and with premeditated malice.
- >2. to slaughter wantonly.
- >3. to put an end to.
- >see also KILL
- >
- >According to definition 2, what is happening to you here, in this
- >forum, is murder.
- >According to definition 3, killing a burglar who enters my home (thus
- >posing a threat to my family) is murder. Won't stop me from doing it,
- >nor will it make my actions morally wrong. Unless you are seriously
- >going to claim that killing a buglar in your own home is not
- >justified?
-
- I would be inclined to pass off Definition #3 as a figurative usage, but
- at the same time, I would point out to both of you that MALICE is generally
- considered a necessary component of "murder", and since there is no malice
- in the case of abortion OR shooting_burglars_in_the_house, it could not be
- considered "murder". And, in the case of the burglar, at least, if there
- was a reasonable belief that the property-owner or their family was in
- immediate danger, I don't think the shooting would qualify as "manslaughter"
- either...
-
- - Kevin
-