dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer) (04/28/84)
This is going to sound a bit like ethical hair-splitting, but unfortunately, this kind of argument is required if you want to have any kind of ethical system that stands up to scrutiny. I don't make any claims for this in particular, however, since it's somewhat half-baked. But, it interested me enough to think about it for a while. A number of people have alluded to the fact that IUDs and the progestin-only mini-pill produce their contraceptive effect through preventing the fertilized egg from implanting into the uterine wall, and that strictly speaking, such methods would doubtless be made illegal if abortions were made illegal. I'd like to make the proposal that this doesn't necessarily follow. First, not all fertilized eggs are successfully implanted, and not all pregnancies are carried to term. Such failures of implantation and miscarriages are morally and legally neutral, because there was no agent to cause the abortion. Second, I'd like to make the distinction between an abortifacient agent--one which induces an abortion--and an agent that makes implantation less likely. The mini-pill and IUD would fall into the second category. By taking the mini-pill, one is not causing an abortion, but merely decreasing the chance that a successful implantation will occur. This might sound like a needless distinction, but it seems consonant with what many moral theologians say about care for the gravely ill. That is, withholding treatment is not the same as actively causing an individual's death. In the case of the mini-pill, one is generically changing the uterine environment, and not aborting any particular embryo. -- /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca
jad@lanl-a.UUCP (05/01/84)
About the likelihood of implantation when using the "mini-pill", don't the circulars (i.e. inserts) say something about stopping the use of said pills if pregnancy occurs? I.e. they admit the fact that this form of birth control has less than 100% effectivity (implantation CAN occur).
dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer) (05/01/84)
Yup. The mini-pill is statistically less effective than the high-dose estrogen/progestin combination. Implantation and preganancy is certainly a possibility. -- /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca