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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!matt
From: matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt )
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: The Status of the Fetus and Its Rights
Message-ID: <1651@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 09:50:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1651
Posted: Mon Sep 23 09:50:40 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 10:53:25 EDT
References: <429@cmu-cs-spice.ARPA> <1546@pyuxd.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 37

> There is one point that I think requires amplification.  The extreme
> pro-life position of Matt Rosenblatt et. al. says that from the moment
> of conception the embryo deserves full legal status as a human being.
> A logical consequence of this position is that a woman who uses an
> I. U. D. or a morning after pill is guilty of premeditated murder.
> The penalty for premeditated murder is life imprisonment or death.
> [BILL TANENBAUM]

A while ago, I took issue with Ken Arndt (who generally speaks the straight
truth about abortion -- where are you, Ken?) over his use of the technical
legal term "murder" to describe abortion.  Our legal system has come a long
way from the Old English common law under which every killing was murder.
All victims are NOT equal; all circumstances are NOT equal, and the people,
through their elected representatives in all 50 states, have the right to
define murder and other crimes as they see fit, subject only to the 
limits imposed by the U.S. Constitution and their State constitutions.
Abortion was never defined as "murder" -- it was a separate crime with
its own penalties.  

If I were a legislator considering a bill outlawing abortions, I would want
to vary the penalty, depending on whether the woman knows she is pregnant
at the time she kills her embryo/fetus, and depending on whether it is the
woman herself who attempts abortion (women were almost never prosecuted
under the old anti-abortion laws), or a professional abortionist. 
Precedent?  Sure:  One of the aggravating circumstances in the presence
of which the U.S. Supreme Court allows the States to impose the death
penalty is "murder for hire," the case of the professional "hit man."
**NB:  MATT ROSENBLATT IS OPPOSED TO THE DEATH PENALTY FOR ANY CRIME,
       EVEN BY HIT MEN!  DON'T ANYONE MISQUOTE THE PREVIOUS SENTENCE TO SAY
       THAT MATT ROSENBLATT ADVOCATES THE DEATH PENALTY FOR OPERATORS
       OF ABORTION CLINICS OR THEIR STAFF! **

I believe that the user of an IUD or morning-after pill would lack the
"specific intent" (another technical legal term) required to make out 
a case of murder.

					-- Matt Rosenblatt


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