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From: kss@gitpyr.UUCP (Kevin Smith)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: why is it?
Message-ID: <979@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Nov-85 13:44:40 EST
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.979
Posted: Mon Nov  4 13:44:40 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Nov-85 21:24:21 EST
References: <970@gitpyr.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 66
Summary: Re: why is it?

In article <970@gitpyr.UUCP>, myke@gitpyr.UUCP (Myke Reynolds) writes:
> >If I believe the unborn, at any stage of being, to be in fact a living child,
> >then it is as much my responsibility to try to stop its "termination" as if
> >I saw a child standing in front of a speeding car, don't you agree?  This
> >is certainly of moral consequence.
> 
> I'm not touching this with a 10 foot pole. If you can't see the difference
> between a child and a 8 week old fetus then whats the point in arguing..

Well.  Ok, so I jumped into a discussion and got fried.  I've read this net
for some time, simply because I have questions, and the reason I entered the
discussion was perhaps to pose some of them.

Let me state my position, not that it's fascinating but so you will know where
I write from.  A year ago I viewed abortion about the same as a minor amputa-
tion; not pleasant, certainly, but not much more significant.  I was then and 
am still relatively ignorant (although at times this net has been enlightening);
your 8 week old fetus was about all the thought I had on the matter.  I am a 
"fundamentalist Christian" (to categorize myself for you), but I still don't 
have a whole lot of feeling for that 8 week old fetus; your description
probably fits "it" pretty well.  

The problem is that "abortion" does not mean just that "8 week old".  Myke, you
say Matt skirts all the issues, but it seems to me you and many others are 
skirting a pretty big one when that "8 week old" is allowed to represent the 
whole range of pregnancy.  The question I posed in the article you quoted was
perhaps poorly stated, so I will try to do better.  Mr. Rosen recently posted
an article about a court ruling concerning an unborn child (I don't have the
original text).  He stated that it supported his position concerning viability
of a fetus.  The focus of the ruling to me appeared no more or less than 
equating the status of that child before and after birth.  If then the "unborn"
is alive at some point before birth, does not the responsibility I mentioned
apply?  I am not trying to say this ruling extended back to conception (I
haven't resolved that question even for myself yet), but it stated there 
*is a point* of life before delivery.  My feeling is this; if I approve abortion
up to delivery I am *definitely* permitting some "humans" to be killed, whereas
if I disapprove of abortion I am possibly protecting some masses of cells but
am *definitely* preventing these "humans" from being killed.  

So.  I have posed my thoughts and am interested in answers.  I'm listening, 
folks.




















 
-- 
Kevin Smith
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!kss