Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dartvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!dartvax!betsy From: betsy@dartvax.UUCP (Betsy Hanes Perry) Newsgroups: net.abortion Subject: Re: Who's Life Anyway? Message-ID: <3308@dartvax.UUCP> Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 15:00:17 EDT Article-I.D.: dartvax.3308 Posted: Fri Jun 28 15:00:17 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 2-Jul-85 06:06:49 EDT References: <556@bgsuvax.UUCP> <283@vaxwaller.UUCP> <710@ihlpg.UUCP> Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Lines: 41 > > Come on. You didn't answer the question. Every freedom carries > responsibility with it. If you want the freedom, you had best be ready for > the responsibility. > > Jean Marie Diaz Could we have a little more reason and a little less rhetoric here? Examine the statement: "Every freedom entails responsibilities." Sounds nice; what does it mean? What responsibilities go with the freedom to breathe? What responsibilities go with the freedom to brush your hair? (Maybe keeping your combings off the common floor?) A more accurate statement would be "Each society grants freedoms and requires certain responsibilities in its turn. The responsibilities are often associated with the freedoms." Less catchy, but you can't have everything. In any case, I would agree that the freedom to fornicate carries with it the responsibility to provide against (or for) progeny. However, many of us don't consider it "irresponsible" to back-up the unreliable methods of contraception available with abortion. (I hold no moral book for people who don't bother with contraception and get caught.) So many pro-choicers *are* "prepared for the responsibility" of unwanted pregnancy; they are prepared to undergo a surgical procedure to deal with that responsibility. We can reasonably argue the morality of that decision in this forum, but calling abortions "irresponsible" without justifying the term is not a reasonable argument. Does anybody else out here think this forum's main purpose is justifying our collective paranoia about "the other side"? I mean, I still shiver at the thought of the guy who wanted to legislate women's behavior (smoking, drinking, etc.) during pregnancy, and I've heard equally appalling sweeping statements (children should be abortable until age three) made by people theoretically on 'my' side. -- Elizabeth Hanes Perry UUCP: {decvax |ihnp4 | linus| cornell}!dartvax!betsy CSNET: betsy@dartmouth ARPA: betsy%dartmouth@csnet-relay "Ooh, ick!" -- Penfold