Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!liz From: liz@umcp-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Against Abortion Message-ID: <341@umcp-cs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 30-Jun-83 16:07:34 EDT Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.341 Posted: Thu Jun 30 16:07:34 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jul-83 01:04:29 EDT References: <2284@csu-cs.UUCP> Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept. Lines: 50 From csu-cs!silver To paraphrase a generally rational sentiment: "If you can arbitrarily define a fetus in the womb as a child, then whose freedoms among ours is safe?" I think more freedoms are risked by defining a fetus as not entirely human -- it narrows the definition of what is human. For example, there is a proposal to allow infanticide in the cases of infants up to three days old with birth defects (not just withhold life support). Another form of this proposal would require all infants to pass some kind of test. Where will you draw the line on what is truly human? I'll go further than just retort, and remind you (briefly) of one rational argument FOR freedom of abortion: Humans differ from other animals primarily by their intellectual ability. The fetal brain really starts to be human at about the sixth month of gestation. Humans may differ >primarly< by their intellectual ability, but I wouldn't want to define them this way. It is too easy to start marking the mentally retarded and the senile as non-human. ... Before this time a fetus may LOOK human but, by one very unarguable measurement, it is NOT yet human, only potentially so -- the same as an unfertile egg. No, not really the same. Uninterupted (by disease or abortion), the fetus will grow into a human child. An unfertile egg cannot grow without outside help (fertilization). Considering the violent differences of opinion in this debate, both sides must be willing to compromise rationally, looking at the evidence. But on the pro-life side, abortion is viewed as killing. It is hard to view that a person has the right to kill anything human... On the other hand, being pro-life should also include being for the life of the woman. A woman considering an abortion is in a difficult situation, and her needs must not be overlooked. Being pro-life must mean considering her life as well (though not at the expense of the life of her baby). -Liz PS I'm probably stiring up a hornet's nest...