lambe@csd2.UUCP (10/20/84)
[] A few weeks ago, I read about a speech made by Mario Cuomo in which he raised an interesting question. I haven't seen any discussion of it in this group, so here goes. The question is directed at pro-life people (disclaimer: the form of the question here is all mine, and probably bears no resemblance to the way in which Cuomo put it). Suppose you succeed in having abortion made illegal. In the years before abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court, the best information is that hundreds of thousands of women had illegal abortions every year. There is no reason to think that this number would be smaller if abortion were made illegal again. What should we do about this? 1. Prosecute ~500,000 women a year for murder or manslaughter (this would seem to logically follow from at least some of the pro-life positions explained in this group). 2. Prosecute some women, or some doctors, for murder or manslaughter. 3. Close down abortion clinics whenever they are found, and prosecute the doctors operating them for some smaller violation of the law (I'm not sure, but I think this was basically the situation before abortion was legalized). 4. Leave the law largely unenforced (as for Prohibition). 5. Other (I'm interested in hearing your alternatives). Isaac Dimitrovsky
andrews@uiucdcsb.UUCP (10/24/84)
Suppose you make murder illegal. It is well known that many murders are commited each year, and that people might have to use riskier and messyer ways to commit it, and they those doing the murdering might injure themselves in the process. Does this mean that we should legalize murder? I would hardly think so. Yet it is basically the same argument that abortion advocates use. Brad Andrews
keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle) (11/01/84)
... > > I heard an argument by a pro-life person the other day and > > thought that I would share it with all of you. > > > > Do you think that it is wrong to throw a hand-grenede into > > a room that you think might have a person in it. >Not a good analogy, I'm afraid -- I wouldn't throw a hand grenade into a >room which might contain a cow, although I have no qualms about having cows >killed for food. Another reason it's not a good analogy, I don't think I'd have any reason to throw a hand-grenade into a room even if I knew there wasn't ANYTHING in it.
brianp@shark.UUCP (Brian Peterson) (11/07/84)
X From: keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle)
X > > I heard an argument by a pro-life person the other day and
X > > thought that I would share it with all of you.
X > >
X > > Do you think that it is wrong to throw a hand-grenede into
X > > a room that you think might have a person in it.
X
X >Not a good analogy, I'm afraid -- I wouldn't throw a hand grenade into a
X >room which might contain a cow, although I have no qualms about having cows
X >killed for food.
X
X Another reason it's not a good analogy, I don't think I'd have any reason to
X throw a hand-grenade into a room even if I knew there wasn't ANYTHING in it.
Now, what if you were standing in a room with only a single door,
holding a grenade, and the pin fell out? You know for 100% sure that
there is a person in the same room as you.
Brian Peterson {ucbvax, ihnp4, } !tektronix!shark!brianp
^ ^