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From: flaps@utcs.uucp (Alan J Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Something NEW...
Message-ID: <917@utcs.uucp>
Date: Mon, 14-Oct-85 02:57:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcs.917
Posted: Mon Oct 14 02:57:06 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Oct-85 04:44:07 EDT
References: <5986@cbscc.UUCP> <5@uscvax.UUCP> <6032@cbscc.UUCP> <1333@ihlpg.UUCP> <590@linus.UUCP>
Reply-To: flaps@utcs.UUCP (Alan J Rosenthal)
Distribution: net
Organization: University of Toronto
Lines: 16
Summary: 

Phillip W. Servita asks:
>Why is rape illegal?

It's not!  Rape is SOMETIMES illegal, sometimes not.  For example, in most
states it is legal to rape your wife.  Etc.  Also, it seems absurd to me
to call something illegal if someone does it and is not convicted for it,
or especially if they are actually acquitted, so many rapes are not illegal,
by a reasonable definition of 'illegal'.

In case you were asking, Why do we abhor rape?, I don't think this has a
direct answer.  Being raped often ruins a woman's life.  At least it has
a profound negative effect on the rest of it.  The fact that women are
likely to be raped prevents women from living normal lives and feeling free
to travel at night, or to talk with strange men, or to go to some places
alone.  But what makes these things undesirable can only be axiomatic, or
defined in terms of other things that must be axiomatic.