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- Newsgroups: talk.abortion
- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!concert!uvaarpa!murdoch!usenet
- From: gjh@galen.med.Virginia.EDU (Galen J. Hekhuis)
- Subject: Slavery and abortion (again)
- Message-ID: <1993Jan12.140528.12076@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
- Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
- Organization: University of Virginia Health Sciences Center
- Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 14:05:28 GMT
- Lines: 75
-
- Let's think a minute. I know that is pretty hard for some of you,
- but at least nod your head and try to fool other people.
-
- There was no federal law which abolished slavery. Before some
- of you protest, remember, you are trying to at least look like
- you are thinking. There was no federal law which permitted
- slavery either. What actually "freed" the slaves was the overturning
- of those covenants and laws that enforced (a rather unnatural)
- concept of one person owning another.
-
- I have stated before that slavery is not possible without law.
- I think that is pretty much true. I doubt you'll find any
- statute that enabled slavery per se, yet you will find several
- many laws (or agreements, if the term "law" upsets you) that
- have lent credence to the notion that one person could be
- owned by another. Some of these were called runaway slave
- laws, some were thinly veiled indentured servitude statutes,
- some were called other things.
-
- I have observed a type of red ant (I think I have the colors
- right) attacking and "enslaving" a black ant colony. While
- this is often termed a form of slavery in the animal
- kingdom, it is rather different than human notions of
- slavery. The red ants can neither sell nor barter nor
- trade their "slaves" to ants of another colony even
- if they are like-minded about the issue. The concept
- of ownership and property is a strangely human construct.
- In any event, the example of the ants notwithstanding,
- the notion of "slavery" is quite uncommon in nature.
-
- At least one person has emailed me concerning a law
- against "slavery." I can't deny that such a law might
- exist. However, the vast majority of laws that "ban
- slavery" actually make several key notions which uphold
- the notion of slavery unenforceable. Few actually say
- that "slavery" is illegal. As a matter of fact, slavery
- is probably quite legal in your locality, it is the
- enforcement of things that go along with human slavery
- that will get you into trouble. I doubt anyone has
- been convicted of having a slave, though according to
- some mere possession should be against the law. Usually
- someone is arrested and convicted for some other offense
- committed while trying to enforce slavery.
-
- One of the reasons why slavery is such a poor analogy to
- abortion is that there are people who actually wish to
- make laws pinpointing "abortion." This is not
- alleviated simply by using other terms that mean
- the same thing. In one instance people are trying to
- restrict or ban an entire concept, whereas in the case
- of slavery the concept isn't illegal in most places, it
- is the implementation of other constraints that is.
- If one were to attempt to draw an analogy, one would
- have to argue that a ban on abortion could be accomplished
- by banning particular medical practices (not abortion or
- a synonym thereof). Parallels simply do not exist, and
- this is only one area. It is not a poor analogy due
- to the assignment of risk, or due to moral constraints,
- or whatever. It is a very poor analogy because slavery
- and abortion are so fundamentally different. True,
- there are similarities that can be drawn, but attempting
- to compare the two and draw any meaningful conclusions
- about one based on the other is simply futile.
-
- Of course, another reason is that abortion is quite simply
- unique. (I think that is from the latin "unos," meaning one,
- and "equus," meaning horse. Hence the "one horse" or
- unique town.) There is absolutely no other situation in which
- an individual is inside the body of another. Think about
- it a minute. There is no useful analogy.
-
- --
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- Galen Hekhuis UVa Health Sci Ctr (804)982-1646 gjh@virginia.edu
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