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From: tdn@spice.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA (Thomas Newton)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: A reply to Dave Messer on the humanity issue
Message-ID: <464@spice.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 13-Oct-85 17:31:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: spice.464
Posted: Sun Oct 13 17:31:39 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Oct-85 07:36:17 EDT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 28

The fetus does not conceive itself.  Two other people conceive it.  Except
in the case of rape, one can't say 'I had no choice in the matter; this is
being forced upon me'.  If the fetus is human, you have no right to make it
leave your body at the cost of its life, since you were one of the people who
put it there and killing it would be a violation of its rights.

If you fire a gun in the general direction of a crowd and one of the bullets
hits someone, you're responsible for the injury done to that person, even if
you didn't mean to hit anybody.  This involves, at a minimum, getting medical
care for him/her.  With respect to avoiding pregnancy, having sex is similar
to firing a gun:  although there are ways to reduce the risk of the activity
(looking to see if anyone else is around <-> using contraceptives), some risk
still remains.  Although killing the gunshot victim or aborting the fetus may
seem like 'convenient' ways of dealing with an unwanted outcome, neither is
acceptable on the general principle that people shouldn't pay with their lives
for other people's mistakes.

The points you made only have any applicability in cases of rape.  Note that
in the case of rape, the fetus does not force itself upon the mother; rather,
the rapist forces the innocent fetus upon the mother.  I think that if a rape
victim gets pregnant by the rapist and has an abortion, the abortion should be
counted as a murder/manslaughter charge against the rapist when he is brought
to trial.  (This fits in well with the gun analogy; if someone grabs you and
forces you to squeeze the trigger of a gun, they are responsible for any bad
consequences that result, not you).

                                        -- Thomas Newton
                                           Thomas.Newton@spice.cs.cmu.edu