Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihuxn.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!qantel!ihnp4!ihuxn!gadfly From: gadfly@ihuxn.UUCP (Gadfly) Newsgroups: net.abortion Subject: Innocent human life? (Possible duplicate posting) Message-ID: <1124@ihuxn.UUCP> Date: Tue, 6-Aug-85 23:56:59 EDT Article-I.D.: ihuxn.1124 Posted: Tue Aug 6 23:56:59 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 03:20:28 EDT Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 47 -- Saying "abortion is murder" doesn't get us anywhere, because irrespective of the is-the-fetus-really-human issue, most people will admit there's times when killing a person is OK, or at least morally defensible. Usually such soon-to-be-dead individuals have to do something to deserve it, though. To distinguish fetuses from these bad guys, fetuses are often refered to by anti-abortionists as "innocent human life". Well then, what exactly is innocence? If any war is ever justifiable, then the killing of "innocent" human life is justifiable. Wars' casualties always transcend the actual combatants, and all the principals know it before the shooting even starts. There's inevitably all sorts of marginal support personnel, and of course civilians, who never asked for the hostilities, but were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. We grieve for them, sometimes, but we kill them anyway. Often these casualties come about essentially for reasons of military convenience. To be more selective in targetting would be too risky, endanger too many troops, prolong the war, etc. It's a messy business, but, that's life. And death. The analogy must by now be clear. Somebody tell me what it is about a state that intrinsically possesses the right to kill purely for convenience that the individual does not. You may quote Hegel. (Yeah, go ahead Mr. "Bomb-Lover" Arndt. Do it. Make my day :-) If you say that all war is wrong, that the state does not have such a right, that no one ever, jointly or severally, has such a right, I applaud your moral utopianism. Alas, all states do claim such a right, and have back to the beginnings of history. And this doesn't seem to bother anybody either--especially alleged "pro-lifers." Thus, even if a fetus were a human being (and notice the subjunctive indicating a condition contrary to fact), aborting one is perfectly consistent with the rest--and the best--of human ethics. Functionally, anyway. So please, let's not dwell too long about abortion "cheapening" human life. It's already so dirt cheap the bottom long ago fell out of the market. In this world there is no "innocent"--only lucky. -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 06 Aug 85 [19 Thermidor An CXCIII] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7753 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!iwsl8!ken *** ***