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From: mazur@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Abortion - (nf)
Message-ID: <992@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 4-Mar-84 00:12:15 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.992
Posted: Sun Mar  4 00:12:15 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Mar-84 02:33:40 EST
Lines: 40

#R:decwrl:-582300:inmet:10900054:000:2007
inmet!mazur    Feb 29 22:51:00 1984

	The point about abortion that I was trying to make is that from a
	rational viewpoint, it seems to me, it is nothing less than the 
	stopping of human biological life.  And once a reason is allowed 
	to be used for the taking of that life, then that reason should be 
	good for any place along the continuum of biological life from the 
	moment of conception to whatever age before an otherwise "natural" 
	death.  

It seems to me that we allow legal murder in the form of capital punishment.
According to your logic, that means that if we can justify taking a person's
life on the basis of his/her criminal actions, it won't be long before we
decide that shoplifting will be punishable by death :-).

Actually there are also several other instances where "unnatural" death may
seem a possible alternative.  For example, children who are born with severe
birth defects.  A program here, Miller's Court, recently had as it's subject
the case of parents who had decided not to prolong their newborn's life with
painful surgery.  A clergyman heard of this decision and took the family
to court for custody.  In this fake court setup, the jury decided to take
custody away from the parents.

There was also the scenario enacted in the movie "Whose Life Is It Anyways?",
where Richard Dreyfuss portrays a quadriplegic who chooses death as opposed to
the mechanical preservation of life.  What about the fight of Karen Ann 
Quinlan's parents to have their daughter removed from life support systems?

Abortion has nothing to do with any of this.  This would exist even if 
abortion was outlawed.  In fact, even if abortions were outlawed, women
would still find ways to get them.  You may find a burning saline solution
tough to stomach, but I find having abortions performed with a coat hanger
equally tough to stomach.

It would seem to me though, that with proper education and inexpensive, 
easily obtained birth control, the need for abortion could be reduced.

Beth Mazur
{ima,harpo,esquire}!inmet!mazur