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- Newsgroups: talk.abortion
- Subject: Gypsies and the Down's Syndrome: McBean and Nyikos email
- Message-ID: <1992Sep9.151416.2241@brandonu.ca>
- From: mcbeanb@brandonu.ca
- Date: 9 Sep 92 15:14:16 CST
- References: <brandonu.ca mcbeanb.mail.abortion:13>
- Organization: Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
- Lines: 41
-
- Peter asked me to post this discussion, so here it is thusfar:
- >> >>, >> = me
- >> >, > = Peter (duh (just making sure you knew!))
-
- In article <brandonu.ca mcbeanb.mail.abortion:13>, nyikos@milo.math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos) writes:
- >> >> Other
- >> >> people have different beliefs and values, and it's unfair to impose
- >> >> one set of values on such a large and diverse population as that in
- >> >> which we live. That's why I'm pro-choice.
- >> >
- >> >This is going to probably be the big bone of contention between you
- >> >and me in the future. As you may know (I picked it up from Peter Maas's
- >> >book _King of the Gypsies_) many gypsies think they have a god-given
- >> >right to steal, and this may be shared by the Mafia as well. Yet we
- >> >continue to have laws against theft, etc.
- >>
- >> Here's a sticky argument, but I think I can surpass it...
- >> Being pro-choice, I am not actively causing the death of any feti,
- >> but I am protecting all women's rights to protect their bodies.
- >
- > Since when is abortion for gender selection, and abortion for
- > the elimination of
- > handicaps on the order of Down's Syndrome, protecting the body of
- > the woman?
- >
- >> The gypsies and the mafia's personal beliefs would cause them
- >> to actively harm other people, and violate their freedoms.
- >> A pro-choicer violates nobody's freedoms other than the fetus,
- >> but the fetus is not a person, only a potential person, therefore
- >> the rights of the mother (the real current person) override any
- >> partial rights of the fetus.
- >
- > Uh-oh. Looks like we have another big bone of contention here. When
- > you say "potential person," are you speaking in purely legalistic terms?
- > I would guess not, from your use of "actively harm". But then you are
- > making a gigantic assumption, that the fetus is incapable of suffering
- > great agony during a D&E dismemberment, etc.
-
- [red herrings and straw men deleted :) ]
-
- > Peter
-