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From: bird@gcc-bill.ARPA (Brian Wells)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Demarcation of life
Message-ID: <306@gcc-bill.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 7-Sep-85 09:48:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: gcc-bill.306
Posted: Sat Sep  7 09:48:46 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Sep-85 06:09:37 EDT
References: <711@gitpyr.UUCP> <390@scirtp.UUCP> <5839@cbscc.UUCP> <740@gitpyr.UUCP>
Reply-To: bird@gcc-bill.UUCP (Brian Wells)
Followup-To: Myke Reynolds
Distribution: net
Organization: General Computer Company, Cambridge Ma (Home of the HyperDrive)
Lines: 33

In article <740@gitpyr.UUCP> myke@gitpyr.UUCP (Myke Reynolds) writes:
>When an abortion is possible, there is no entity, if there were, this would
>be a clear moral issue. There is only the potential of a sentient being.
>You are trying to use your morality to draw a line of demarcation. Where
>will that line be when a human life can be created from a skin cell underneath
>your toenail?

	I draw the line of demarcation at conception and I believe that it is
both a moral and logical place for that line to be.  The natural result of
conception is baby.  Even though it is just a clump of cells for a while, with
no recognizable human form, it will develop into a baby if left to its natural
course.  When skin cells from under your toe can be used to create human life
I will still have a line of demarcation at conception.  A skin cell left to its
natural course will protect you for a while and then die, flake off, but will
never naturally become another human being.

>You argue from the standpoint of morality and religion where the issue is lost
>in mirky vagueness.. There is no universal morality, and certainly no universal
>religion.. (I can see the ethnocentric eyebrows raised at that one.)
>I argue from the point of social good. The issue is clear there, and it would
>appear that the people who run this country know it.
>-- 
>Myke Reynolds

	There is also no universal point of social good.  I believe abortion
has a bad social influence on society.  I believe it devalues human life.
Is your argument from the social good any less murky than those arguments
based on morality and religion?  I think not.
						Brian Wells
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James 1:5
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