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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!cires!nbires!opus!rcd
From: rcd@opus.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Open letter to pro-lifers, round 2
Message-ID: <272@opus.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 24-Mar-84 03:15:30 EST
Article-I.D.: opus.272
Posted: Sat Mar 24 03:15:30 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 13:43:51 EST
References: <320@bunkerb.UUCP>
Organization: NBI, Boulder
Lines: 29

<>
> Yes, but it is valid to say that abortion will increase, not decrease,
> the general disregard for the value of life.
No, it is not valid to say that, if by "valid" you mean that people will
generally agree with the statement.  It is particularly wide of the mark if
you are willing to consider more than just a count of how many living
beings exist.

> If something being evil is not adequate grounds for outlawing it,
> then what is?
Evil, by itself, is a moral judgment which need have nothing to do with
law.  In order to outlaw an action, it ought not to be just "evil", but
actually regarded so by a large proportion of society, demonstrably harmful
to the general welfare, and reasonably curable by laws proscribing it.
Abortion does not satisfy any of the last three criteria.

> Now the human race has a problem: a general disregard for the value
> of life, even human life...
I can see that there are ways in which we have a disregard for the value of
life - e.g., the arms race - but I think a generalization is rash here.  In
particular, in my own mind the human race that I encounter has a problem of
at least as great proportions:  an inordinate, almost paranoid fear of
death, coupled with an inability to deal with it when it occurs.
-- 
{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd


-- 
{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd