Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cbsck.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!bellcore!petrus!sabre!zeta!epsilon!gamma!ulysses!burl!clyde!cbosgd!cbsck!pmd From: pmd@cbsck.UUCP (Paul Dubuc) Newsgroups: net.abortion Subject: Re: "The child of a fiend" Message-ID: <1342@cbsck.UUCP> Date: Tue, 8-Oct-85 14:47:38 EDT Article-I.D.: cbsck.1342 Posted: Tue Oct 8 14:47:38 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 11-Oct-85 07:15:31 EDT References: <793@nmtvax.UUCP> <1333@cbsck.UUCP>, <1183@mhuxt.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories , Columbus Lines: 74 >> Anyway, it's interesting to see someone supporting the stigma (and on >> genetic grounds to boot!). I'm glad there aren't a lot of people who >> seriously believe that there are genes for criminal behavior. There >> would be a lot more people thrown into jail as a "preventative" measure :-(. >> Paul Dubuc > > While it is indeed silly to suppose that there is a specific gene >which controls rape, it is equally silly to suppose that *no* factors >are inherited and that a woman who has been raped can expect a child >who has been sired by a degenerate to be every bit as bright, lovable and >mentally stable as a child who has been sired by a carefully chosen >spouse. I think it's silly to pass judgement one way or the other. In tearing down the totality of genetic determination, I am not discounting that the child will be like her father genetically. I would say that the environment has much to do with the kind of people we become. Is the woman who gets an abortion really performing genetic screening, Jeff? Neither of us knows. One thing we both know, however, is that she's leaving nothing up to the environment in which the child could grow up. >It is also unreasonable to refuse to recognize that the >burden of bearing a desperately unwanted child is *much* heavier than >the burden of bearing a desired child. I don't think I have refused to recognize this in the articles I have posted. Do you think I have done this simply because I suggest that the transfer of anger from rapist to child isn't really just, or because I suggest that abortion may not be the unquestionably best thing to do? > The upshot of this all is that a raped woman weighing the decision >to abort or not can easily predict much higher costs and lower rewards >for carrying the fetus to term than can a woman carrying a fetus sired >by a man she loves. Another factor which may increase the proportion of >assaulted women who decide to abort is the likelyhood that the abortion >would happen in the first trimester. While pro-lifers may decide that >none of these considerations are more important than the potential >humanity of the fetus, they should not be suprised that many other women >may not. I don't think anyone is surprised, Jeff. Some of us just wonder about why, where the fetus is concerned, predictions of the "cost and rewards" to others make the difference whether or not she is a rightful human being. We don't seem to make that distinction where other human lives are concerned. >Nor should they conclude, on the basis of the fact that more >women who are pregnant as the result of rape choose abortion than women >who haven't been assaulted, that these women are choosing abortion because >they blame the fetus for their rape. This is just as reasonable as >concluding that poor people blame their fetuses for their poverty, since >a greater proportion of poverty-stricken women choose abortion. >Jeff Sonntag It's not on the basis of statistics that I conclude anything. It's on the basis of the way rape is used by the pro-choice media to justify abortion on demand. The message of this media has practically absolutized the rightness of abortion in cases of rape. I gather that they don't want people suggesting otherwise. It's OK to tell them abortion is right for her, but not to suggest reasons why it may not be. The pro-choice media is not leaving the decision completely up to the woman. They only communicate that abortion is right in rape cases. Why is abortion touted as part of the remedy to poverty? The film, "So Many Voices" drove the viewer through poverty stricken neighborhoods, lamenting the condition of people with so many children. Maybe *we* are the ones who blame the children of the poor for the poverty of their parents (and the way to help *their* problem is if *they* have abortions). I agree that it's foolish. Paul Dubuc -- Paul Dubuc cbscc!pmd