Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site eosp1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!eosp1!robison From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: Beginning of Personhood Message-ID: <1162@eosp1.UUCP> Date: Tue, 2-Oct-84 18:17:41 EDT Article-I.D.: eosp1.1162 Posted: Tue Oct 2 18:17:41 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 3-Oct-84 20:17:48 EDT Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ Lines: 46 References: > Seriously, why draw the line at birth? > A child/baby is dependent upon its parents for some time. Why not > permit "choice" beyond birth? If the parents choose to get rid of > the baby why shouldn't they have the right. (By the way, this is not > a new notion: it was quite popular for this to be done especially to > one of the sexes in past civilizations.) After all, a baby has > very little ability to defend itself... > gary > Path: eosp1!princeton!allegra!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!hou2b!gkm (I assume gary is being sarcastic...) A few comments that may be interesting: (1) If you research, you may find that all societies that condone "exposure" (allowing some infants to die) have rather rigid controls on the process related to their notion of what a person is. For example, the Ancient Greeks would not allow a "person" to be exposed, only a non-person, that is, a baby that has not yet suckled at the breast. (2) A society that allows infants (that it regards as genuinely persons) to be killed by parents who do not want them, will have a serious problem of desensitizing and "ruining" its people. They will just not be able to act supportively and maturely if they place so little value on life. A baby that has resided with its parents for a few days will establish itself as an individual, and will become known to those caring for it. It is much harder to kill a person whom you know. (The standard strategy for dealing with criminals who have taken hostages is to procrastinate while the criminals get to know their hostages, thus usually ensuring that they will not be killed.) Our society does provide for parents that do not want their children; they can be put up for adoption. Thgis process is terribly hard, psychologically, on the parents, but it would be far easier than if they killed the children or knew that the unwanted children would die. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison or: decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison or (emergency): princeton!eosp1!robison