Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!aero-c!nadel
From: rivero@dev8a.mdcbbs.com
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: birth control failure?
Message-ID: <1991Jun5.150305.1@dev8a.mdcbbs.com>
Date: 5 Jun 91 15:03:04 GMT
References: <15263.283c1f6f@zeus.unomaha.edu> <675575737@lear.cs.duke.edu>  <1991Jun04.053815.2412091@locus.com>
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In article <1991Jun04.053815.2412091@locus.com>, judy@locus.com (Judy Leedom Tyrer) writes:

> If the man used a birth control device and if the man can prove that this
> device was properly used but failed anyway, then the man can legally
> deny parentage to the child and cannot be brought to court later.

Here is another example of "ignoring the whole for the sake of one side".
This idea, while it looks good from the male point of view, saddles the
woman with the result of an "industrial accident".

Prior to getting married, I used condoms (Guys, women actually like it
if you have an assortment). As I re-enter single life, I shall
continue to do so. HOWEVER, I recognize that the little percent sign
in the effectiveness column does not read 100%. And just like the
lottery, there is a small but finite chance that things might work a little
differently than normal!

  If you drive on the freeway, you reduce your chance for injury in an
accident by wearing your seat belt, but you do NOT eliminate it. If
you share a night with a woman, you reduce your chance for a pregnancy
(and STD) by using a condom, but you do NOT eliminate it. In both cases, that
risk is something you have deciced to accept, whether it is to drive to work
or to play snuggles all night long. Maybe you can sue the maker
of the automobile/birthcontrol, but YOU get to live with the results.
How can you arbitrarily assign the child to the female and let the man go
scott free?

> However,
> if the man did NOT attempt to his best ability to provide birth control,
> he is stuck!  That way, if you REALLY don't want a child, you have the
> ability to make sure in every way possible that you won't have one and
> the legal incentive to carry this out.  (Similar incentive women have had
> all these years which makes us so much more consciencous about BC than
> our male counterparts.

Here we get into some weird legal issues. Just how do you determine
"best ability to provide birth control"? Sounds like a good way to
send some lawyers kids through school.

And I RESENT the crack about how women are more consciencous about BC than
men. Most men are very responsible for their own bodies (and the rest
are appropriatly terrified of the current legal climate).


==========================================================================
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