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From: chrisa@azure.UUCP (Chris Andersen)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Whose life anyway?
Message-ID: <260@azure.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Jun-85 22:11:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: azure.260
Posted: Thu Jun 13 22:11:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Jun-85 00:43:56 EDT
References: <545@bgsuvax.UUCP>, <239@azure.UUCP> <5423@cbscc.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 49

> >	First, and most importantly, I wasn't aborted [need I point this out?].
> >Therefore this question is kind of pointless.
> >
> >	Second, if I had been aborted, I wouldn't be around to wonder about
> >whether I should have been aborted or not.  So again, the question is kind of
> >pointless.
> >
> >	Since I can either be aborted or not aborted, the obvious conclusion is
> >that the question IS pointless.
> >
> >						Chris Andersen
> 
> Its not pointless for those who have been helped by others who might
> have been aborted.  If you had been aborted, the lives of others you
> have influenced (or will influence) would be much different. Would  
> you like to think that they would be better off?  Whould they think so?
> I'm glad my wife wasn't aborted.  For all I know, I may never have met
> another like her.

Let us assume that I had been aborted.  How can the lives of other people be 
different from a life in which they never lived (ie the one in which I was not 
aborted).  Since I'm aborted, how can I think about whether they are better
of or not.  How should I know if they would think so. 

I'm also glad that your wife wasn't aborted because she seems to make you
life better for you (I do not desire a bad time for others just for my sake).
However, if she had been, you would never know it because you would never have
known her in the first place (this is starting to sound like an alternate 
history story).

> 
> There's no way to tell the influence that one person would have on another.
> I don't think we are justified in considering the "what if so-and-so were
> aborted" question so lightly by assuming that that person's life would have
> be detrimental to others or make no difference whatsoever.
> 
> Is your life pointless now?  If not, why is the question of whether or
> not you had ever lived pointless?

I fail to see how my saying that the question of my being aborted is pointless
implies that my life is pointless now. (aside: frankly I can judge whether
my life is pointless since I don't know what the point of life is.  Get the
point :-) ).

> -- 
> 
> Paul Dubuc 	cbscc!pmd

Chris Andersen	tektronix!azure!chrisa