Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ut-ngp.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!kjm
From: kjm@ut-ngp.UUCP (Ken Montgomery)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Gosh, I hope this doesn't bury me
Message-ID: <1406@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Mar-85 11:33:08 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.1406
Posted: Fri Mar  1 11:33:08 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 4-Mar-85 06:19:47 EST
References: <221@ttidcc.UUCP> <1330@hou4b.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: U.Texas Computation Center, Austin, Texas
Lines: 43

[]
From: mat@hou4b.UUCP (Mark Terribile)
> ...
>>...  nor is a man capable to carry a fetus, ... this is an issue for women.
>
>Red herring time, here.  ``Since Northerners can't own slaves, I don't think
>they should be talking about the morality of slaveholding''

Anybody can be enslaved.  Only women can get pregnant.

>Not being personally involved has NEVER absolved an individual of guilt
>earned by standing aside and letting bad things happen.

Why does guilt accrue to innocent bystanders who had no part in
creating some situation?  Why are these people obligated to act?

>> Certainly men may have opinions, and notably do, across the spectrum.
>> However, they cannot have the ultimate responsibility because their bodies,
>> futures, careers, livelihood are not impacted by this issue EXCEPT by their
>> voluntary consent.
>
>I agree that nature has placed a greater burden on women in the process of
>creating the next generation.  That greater responsibility DOES NOT MEAN that
>power over life and death should be granted to an individual.

Most individuals have the physical capacity to kill, and thus posess
"power over life and death" already.

>The issue is simple.  Can we be reasonably sure that what we are destroying
>is not the moral/ethical equivalent of a human being?  If it is, no amount of
>sophistry about the burdens that nature has placed can excuse destroying it.

One needs no excuse to refuse aid to another to whom one is not obligated.

> from Mole End           Mark Terribile

--
The above viewpoints are mine.  They are unrelated to
those of anyone else, including my cats and my employer.

Ken Montgomery  "Shredder-of-hapless-smurfs"
...!{ihnp4,allegra,seismo!ut-sally}!ut-ngp!kjm  [Usenet, when working]
kjm@ut-ngp.ARPA  [for Arpanauts only]