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- Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!spool.mu.edu!nigel.msen.com!heifetz!rotag!kevin
- From: kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy)
- Newsgroups: talk.abortion
- Subject: Re: consenting to sex is surrendering rights? (was: Blackmun calls...)
- Message-ID: <1993Jan11.150152.21281@rotag.mi.org>
- Date: 11 Jan 93 15:01:52 GMT
- References: <1993Jan8.215544.3567@nwnexus.WA.COM> <markp.726627427@spider.wri.com> <1993Jan11.022306.14508@netcom.com>
- Organization: Who, me???
- Lines: 29
-
- In article <1993Jan11.022306.14508@netcom.com> ray@netcom.com (Ray Fischer) writes:
- >markp@spider.wri.com (Mark Pundurs) writes ...
- >> jbrindle@halcyon.com (Jennifer Brindle) writes:
- >>>Seriously, do you believe that we are all just slaves to our bodies, and
- >>>shouldn't avail ourselves to medical, psychological, and other help when
- >>>we feel it is necessary?
- >>
- >>Of course we should -- but we shouldn't violate anyone else's right
- >>to life in the process.
- >
- >In case you haven't been paying attention, terminating a pregnancy
- >does not necessarily imply violating anyone's right to life. If a
- >living fetus is removed from the mother's uterus at 4 months gestation
- >without being killed, neither its bodily autonomy nor its right to
- >life have been violated. Granted, it will die in short order, but as
- >this society generally believes that slavery (using another's body
- >against their will) is inappropriate, forcing the mother to serve the
- >fetus cannot be justified.
-
- Well put. I would add to that, also, that the superiority of the mother's
- right to Bodily Autonomy, over the fetus'es purported right of womb-occupation
- is the PRIMARY issue, and once that is resolved, the SECONDARY issue of
- whether it is permissible to destroy a non-viable fetus _in utero_
- can be resolved by taking the pragmatic approach -- what useful purpose is
- served by the symbolic gesture of removing the fetus intact, only to have it
- die a short time later, that compares to the safety and efficiency of the
- methods currently in use?
-
- - Kevin
-