Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihlpg.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!mhuxt!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!ihlpg!tan
From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: The Status of the Fetus and Its Rights
Message-ID: <1267@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 22:58:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1267
Posted: Mon Sep 16 22:58:38 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Sep-85 05:46:20 EDT
References: <429@cmu-cs-spice.ARPA> <1546@pyuxd.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 20

Mr. McNeill has done a wonderful job in stating the pro-choice position.
He has done this without falling into the trap of merely defining away
the humanity of the fetus.
There is one point that I think requires amplification.  The extreme
pro-life position of Matt Rosenblatt et. al. says that from the moment
of conception the embryo deserves full legal status as a human being.
A logical consequence of this position is that a woman who uses an
I. U. D. or a morning after pill is guilty of premeditated murder.
The penalty for premeditated murder is life imprisonment or death.
O.K. YOU PRO-LIFERS, should I.U.D. users be sent to prison for life.
If you say yes, your position is consistent, but your values are
BARBARIC, in my opinion.  If you say no, on what grounds do you do
so.  After all, murder is murder.  The act is premeditated.  The
"victim", as you call it, is innocent.  On what grounds do you
argue for leniency?  Could it be that killing an embryo is not
as bad as killing a born human being??  If you can get yourself
to come this far, you might realize that your moral absolutes
are not so absolute as you thought.
-- 
Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL  ihnp4!ihlpg!tan