Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 8/23/84; site ucbcad.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!ucbesvax!ucbcad!faustus
From: faustus@ucbcad.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.abortion,net.politics,net.religion,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Re: Abortion and Capital Punishment
Message-ID: <2789@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Nov-84 10:37:09 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.2789
Posted: Thu Nov 15 10:37:09 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Nov-84 02:49:32 EST
References: <1782@burdvax.UUCP> <779@ariel.UUCP> <359@klipper.UUCP>
Organization: UC Berkeley CAD Group, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 27

> []
> 	Human fetuses are no humans, and may be aborted. Since birth does
> 	not miraculously brew "humans", the only logical limit is when
> 	it becomes clear that a child is reasonable. So I think parents
> 	should have the right to "kill" their children till something
> 	like the age of 12. In fact in Japan this is already an accepted
> 	point of view. Why would it suddenly be murder t " kill" a baby
> 	that two days ago still was a "fetus" and so possible subject to
> 	abortion? The natural limit would be this: At the moment a child
> 	would be able to live after being rejected by its parents, it
> 	could. Being removed from a womb is such a form of rejection.
> 	(In fact, this is also a [Ll]ibertarian idea: nobody has the duty
> 	to care for someone else, and children are held responsible for
> 	themselves)

As I have pointed out before, probably the only reason that laws against
murder exist at all is that people feel, subjectively, that it is a bad 
thing to do. The way laws get created is that people take things that they
feel are bad, and then create rationalizations for them, like "It's bad
for society". These may be true but are not the primary motivating reasons
for such laws. A law that allowed infanticide would, in our society at least,
upset too many people to work, regardless of how you rationalize it. On the
other hand, people don't ever get to know their children before they are
born, so they tend not to form the sort of emotional ties that would lead
them to consider abortion a terrible thing (most people, at least). 

	Wayne