Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site whuxlm.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!whuxlm!mag From: mag@whuxlm.UUCP (Gray Michael A) Newsgroups: net.abortion Subject: Re: It is about time! Message-ID: <660@whuxlm.UUCP> Date: Tue, 29-Jan-85 17:28:43 EST Article-I.D.: whuxlm.660 Posted: Tue Jan 29 17:28:43 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 30-Jan-85 07:40:41 EST References: <232@usl.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany Lines: 134 From: Michael Gray, AT&T Bell Labs, Whippany, N.J. I have received several letters asking me to post the articles on abortion ethics that I mentioned in my reply to Yosi Hoshen's request for ideas on promoting choice. The author, Joel V. Sanders, has given me an article to post as a starting point. His comments and article follow: ---------------------------------------------------------------- In the Wall Street Journal of 1/17/83, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Terry Eastland, editor of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, wrote a guest editorial decrying the the decision. In general, Eastland criticizes the decision on constitutional grounds (which I consider irrelevant to abortion ethics), but his basic anti-abortion stance can be shown by a short quote from the article: "Our system of law depends on respect for individual life, a value rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic. The court's decision in Roe v. Wade cannot easily be reconciled with that value. Indeed, it points the way toward future in which respect for human life becomes, like beauty, merely relative." I wrote a letter-to-the-editor in response: re: 10 YEARS AFTER THE ABORTION DECISION (Eastland) I agree that a principled, defensible position on abortion can- not be drawn from the Constitution. Many ethical questions about abortion have yet to even be explored, and law cannot lead philosophy. However, despite the uncertain legal propriety of the Supreme Court's decision, many beneficent consequences have surely accrued from it. Among these are: its implicit acknowledgement of the full human capacities of women, who have been severely demeaned throughout the Western world since the onset of Christianity; a much greater confidence that one can experience the life plan that one values, integrating parenting activities into it, if and when one chooses; a significantly reduced mortality among women who elect to have an abortion; and a higher likelihood that children will indeed be genuinely valued and well-treated by their parents. Moreover, from my own analysis, I believe that a formidable set of ethical considerations can be brought against the anti-abortion position. A sampling of this set follows: - Argument from religious dogma reduces to arbitrary assertion and should be rejected as nonpersuasive. - Similarly, but less obviously, argument from natural "rights" appears to be arbitrary assertion. If a meaningful definition of the concept of a natural "right" has been formulated, then it has escaped the scrutiny of this writer. All the theories from classical liberalism and libertarianism that I have examined depend ultimately upon social agreement. If political "rights" have no "natural" basis, then the very term "right" is both unnecessary and ob- fuscating, and a species of "permission" or of "consent" would offer more clarity. Consequently, an a priori claim of a "right" to something (such as life, a job, a meal, or a swimming pool) appears to be meaningless. - The fact that life is present at conception is unarguable; it is demonstrable from the biological characteristics of life. This fact, however, is ethically indeterminate: it does not say how a given organism should be regarded. - Vegetative life, which is the form present early in an embryo's existence, is routinely terminated for convenient purposes (e.g. harvesting food, producing lumber, killing weeds). Perceptual or animal life, which a fetus possesses following the development of sense receptors and a nervous system, is also routinely terminated (e.g. slaughtering beef, producing fur coats, killing pests). Conceptual life, which is only known to occur in the human species, begins to develop in early childhood. Conceptual awareness denotes the capacity for ab- stract thought, and it is the essential, defining characteristic of "human"-ness (it is useful to distinguish between two senses of "human"--one denotes an attribute, another denotes a species). The killing of human life is sanctioned, in some form, by the social mores of every culture known to this writer. Examples include war, civil disobedience, self-defense, genocide, espionage, and euthanasia. Thus, precedents widely exist for extinguishing life, up to and including life at the human level. It is the task of a rational abortion ethic to identify the conditions under which the capacity of a living embryo to eventuate in a human child should be actualized. The ethical considerations above, though far from exhaustive, generally discredit the anti-abortion position (they also suggest that the popular abortion debate has not yet evolved even to the point of asking relevant questions). Coupled with the substantial benefits that follow from the loosening of abortion restrictions, they point to future guidelines which are at least as liberal as those adopted by the Supreme Court. [Signature] ------------------ My reply to Eastland was deliberately brief, to maximize the chance that the Wall Street Journal would publish it (they didn't). Con- sequently, many of the ideas in it are only mentioned and not developed. It should also be apparent that the arguments presented are in fact only a starting point--they attempt to push through some common ideological shortfalls, to help focus the ethical issues, and thereby to clear the way for some new thinking. They do not yet posit a rational ethic. If there is sufficient interest, I will elaborate on the points named or carry the arguments forward. I am in the process of getting an account on a machine with net access. For the moment, please send any comments to the holder of this account, and he will forward them to me. I will post my own net address when it becomes available. Joel V. Sanders, AT&T Bell Labs, Whippany, N.J.