Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site iddic.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!iddic!galenr
From: galenr@iddic.UUCP (Galen Redfield)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: \"Words mean what I pay them to mean . . .\"
Message-ID: <2119@iddic.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 15:31:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: iddic.2119
Posted: Wed Aug 14 15:31:54 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 03:58:19 EDT
References: <410@cmu-cs-spice.ARPA> <1089@homxa.UUCP>
Reply-To: galenr@iddic.UUCP (Galen Redfield)
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 34
Summary: 

In article <1089@homxa.UUCP> wine@homxa.UUCP (J.GORDON) writes:
>There seems to be a debate going on about the meaning of the word
>'alive.'  Thomas Newton seems to think the term is well defined.
>Well, Thomas, is a cancer cell alive?  Is a kidney alive -- can I
>choose to transplant my kidney, or do I have to ask it's permission?
>Personally I think that a fetus qualifies as alive, as does a cancer
>cell, but I think that the carrier of either has the right to remove
>it.  The concept of 'alive' is not so well defined as some think!
>
>            Jim Gordon, Jr. (JR, not SR as has sometimes been reported)

I'm not the  person  to  whom  you  addressed  the  (rhetorical?)
question, but:

Yes,  cancer  cells  are  alive; if they were dead they would not
cause tumors.  Do you know of any non-living substance  that  can
generate faulty copies of itself (other than software)??

The  kidney  transplant analogy is right on!!  Pregnant women who
wish to have their fetus removed should find another woman  whose
life  is  threatened  due  to  lack of a healthy fetus, so that a
transplant can be performed.

All you've illustrated is that anyone  (man  or  woman)  may,  in
certain  cases,  have  a  normally functioning part of their body
removed.  Transplants are not the only instance;  there  is  also
cosmetic  surgery.   Fact  is,  each situation has its own unique
considerations.

If the abortion issue lended itself easily to the use of examples
to prove arguments, we'd be done already.

Warm regards,
Galen