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From: brianp@shark.UUCP (Brian Peterson)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: The Myth of Neutrality
Message-ID: <914@shark.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 22-Jul-84 22:02:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: shark.914
Posted: Sun Jul 22 22:02:51 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Jul-84 14:57:33 EDT
References: <179@ssc-bee.UUCP> <776@pyuxn.UUCP>, <786@pyuxn.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 29

2@   From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
2@   
2@   Yoshi Hosen misses the point. It doesn't matter a damn whether some
2@   people think that aborting a fetus is murder and some people do not.
2@   It either is or isn't regardless of who has what opinion. It is
2@   simply a very difficult factual question to answer -- hence a there
2@   is a lot of room for conflicting opinions. 

Aborting a fetus is simply taking the life from a bunch of cells which
are the very first stages of life.  (We usually assume the cells have
human DNA in them).  This is definition.  Or fact, or whatever.  Accepted.
(anyone say otherwise?)  Murder is not something so simple and basic.
People do not agree on the definition of murder.  Is it 'taking the life
of a bunch of cells with human DNA'?  Or is it 'taking the life of
a "person" (someone with "personality")'?  Is it ok, or is it to be
avoided?  Most people have bad connotations of murder.  We can't say
flat out that abortion is/n't murder, until we can say flat out what
abortion and murder are.


2@						But no amount of belief that
2@   a fetus is not alive is  ever going to make it dead if it is alive;
2@   and no amount of belief that it is alive is going to make it alive
2@   if it is not.

I don't think that (most) people are trying to change basic facts.
The argument is over what >should< be done.

		Brian Peterson	{ucbvax, ihnp4, }  !tektronix!shark!brianp