Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxn.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!ihuxn!jho From: jho@ihuxn.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen) Newsgroups: net.abortion Subject: Who has the right over our bodies? Message-ID: <581@ihuxn.UUCP> Date: Mon, 19-Mar-84 11:37:34 EST Article-I.D.: ihuxn.581 Posted: Mon Mar 19 11:37:34 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 20-Mar-84 01:25:48 EST Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 52 We have seen many articles in net.abortion addressing the following questions: Is the fetus a human? When should the fetus be considered a human? These are interesting but academic questions. They should not be the focus to our discussion. The real question that we should address: Who has the right on another person's body?. Does a person have a right over his/her body? In most cases society answers affirmatively to this question. Society does not interfere when people smoke themselves to death with cigarettes. We don't have prohibition laws, though alcohol is responsible for many premature deaths. These self inflicted abuses are considered a private matter even if the abuser is a pregnant woman. Yet, the rule of non-intervention and privacy do not seem to apply to abortion. The anti-abortion movement claims to have the right over the bodies of others. Anti-abortionist imply that from the moment of conception the fetus is human, and thus entitled for the protection of the law. However, they go one step further, they require that the pregnant woman's body should provide the protection, even if this conflicts with the wishes of the pregnant woman. Well, if society wishes to protect the aborted fetus's life, society should find the solution to the problem, a solution that does not violate the right of a woman to control her body. An example of a solution that will not violate a woman's right over her body: Transplanting the fetus in an artificial womb, or in the womb of a (willing) surrogate mother. The fact that society cannot provide an alternate womb at the present time should not imply that the burden of the solution should be imposed on the pregnant woman. Abortion should be a moral rather than a legal issue for the pregnant woman! The real abortion problem is that some members of society wish to impose their moral and religious codes on others. They refuse to acknowledge the fundamental right of a woman over her body when this right applies to abortion. Let us remember that the dispute between pro and anti abortionists is asymmetrical. Those who are pro-choice want only to have the right over their own bodies. They do not tell the anti-abortionists what they should do with their bodies. On the other hand, the anti-abortionists claim to have the right to decide for others what they should or should not do with their bodies! -- Yosi Hoshen Bell Laboratories Naperville, Illinois (312)-979-7321 Mail: ihnp4!ihuxn!jho