Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site valid.UUCP
Path: utzoo!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!ucbvax!hplabs!pesnta!valid!pete
From: pete@valid.UUCP (Pete Zakel)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Message-ID: <173@valid.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Mar-86 19:29:57 EST
Article-I.D.: valid.173
Posted: Thu Mar  6 19:29:57 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Mar-86 01:02:05 EST
References: <11560@watnot.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Valid Logic, San Jose, CA
Lines: 35

> I do not necessarily feel that the right to life of a fetus should
> supercede the right to life of the mother--they are equals.  The
> question of what is ethical in the cases where the life of the mother
> is threatened is another question entirely.  ("One will die--whom
> shall it be??")

Equals?  Please, someone, tell me how anyone can consider the mother and the
fetus to be equals.  This just doesn't parse.

> Further, some rights are present *in time*.  A school is not
> considered as wrong to require that students pursue their happiness at
> a later time.  The mother will regain her fullest ability to pursue
> her happiness in time--nothing is lost.
> 
> In the meantime, who is harmed?
> 
> Paul D. Obeda

Yes, the mother can start pursuing her own happiness 20 years in the future.
That makes perfect sense to me.  Or give the child she bore up for adoption.
When there didn't have to be a child in the first place.  And take the risk
of going through a full term pregnancy.  What if she KNOWS that she will have
to have a C-section to deliver the child, which is even more hazardous than
a normal birth?  Do you still want to force her to go through the pregnancy?

An abortion is still less life-threatening to the mother than a full-term
pregnancy.  If indeed "1 fetus == 1 mother", there is no problem.
It's better for 100 fetuses to become children and for 3 women to die in
childbirth.  But if they are not equal, where is the proper trade-off point?
I submit that it is better for 10,000 fetuses to die in abortions than for 1
woman to die from an unwanted pregnancy.

Which of you "pro-lifers" wants to dispute my last statement?
-- 
-Pete Zakel (..!{hplabs,amd,pyramid,ihnp4}!pesnta!valid!pete)