Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxn.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxn!rlr
From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: if abortion is murder, then...
Message-ID: <542@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Apr-84 14:16:49 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.542
Posted: Fri Apr  6 14:16:49 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Apr-84 04:52:06 EST
References: <2677@rabbit.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 25

> I suspect that many of the people who claim that abortion is murder
> do not go along with many of what I see as the forced consequences of
> that view.  For instance, if abortion is murder, than any action
> that accidentally induces a miscarriage is clearly manslaughter,
> Further, any action that might imp}iair the health of the future
> child is clearly child abuse.
> In short, if you claim that abortion is murder, then to be consistent
> you must claim that an awful lot of everyday actions on the part of
> pregnant women are felonies, such as smoking, drinking, riding in
> airplanes, and so on.

Maybe I hold an unusual viewpoint, but while I concur with those who want
to see abortion as a matter of personal choice regarding one's own body,
if one chooses to carry a fetus to term knowing of her pregnancy, then
any such action should be punishable in some way.  Once you've made the
choice (yes, choice) to allow a fetus in the womb to grow to the point where
it will eventually become an independent life, you take on a responsibility,
and shirking that responsibility to another (eventual) form of life by causing
it chemical damage is wrongful.  Of course, I wish there was a way of enforcing
similar action on someone who damages (chemically or otherwise) a *living*
child.  It would seem that those who choose to (or feel they must) bear a
child have no concept of the responsibility involved.
-- 
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
				Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr