owens@gatech.UUCP (Gerald R. Owens) (04/11/84)
Has anyone bothered to check the cost/benefits of abortion regarding
the parties involved???
The woman: possible social embarassment, physical inconvenience,
loss of time and money, probable dangers to health and
life, desire to avoid the time, work and expense of
raising the kid, possible lowering of lifestyle.
All are avoided by an abortion.
The father: possible social embarassment (although much less than
for the woman in this society, sad to say), loss of money
to have the child delivered and raised, along with the
possible lowering of lifestyle. All are avoided
by an abortion.
The doctor: No abortion, no fee.
The politician: Who me??? Why should I stop it?? Those three
people up there can vote. The fetus can't!
The Judge: Well, The fetus can't hire a lawyer, obviously. Civil
rights violated?? Is it human?? Hmm, a good question.
I'll have to ask a few doctors (Now, guess who is consulted.
No peeking, only one guess. AWWW!! You got it!! :-)
Suggested mapping function:
mother,father --> slave owners
fetus --> slave
doctor --> slave trader
politician --> politician
Judge --> Supreme Court in deciding the Dred Scott case that slaves
were not covered by the Constitution.
abortion --> not having slaves. (the analogy is a bit imperfect
here)
Moral: Too many people are benefitting from abortion, especially in
a financial and powerbased way. Although all of them (especially
the mother) have a valid concern, one must realize that humankind
has had a history of overlooking many facts when money and power are
involved. just as in slavery (and in other cases where people have
been oppressed), the special interests in the issue had good financial
and power hungry reasons for asserting that certain entities were not
human or not covered by the laws or not deserving of any USUAL concern
that they accorded to others. However, my observation breaks down
here for one reason: the slaves could fight and shoot, given the
resources, and had the aid of those who the slave owners said
"it's none of your business! WE have our rights!". A fetus can't
do much more than kick (if it's allowed to develop that far.).
Unseen, mute, and can't defend itself, it makes for a perfect victim.
As for us pro-life/anti-abortion people, apparently the above are
telling us "It's none of your business! WE have our rights!".
The question of whether it is human or not is indeed *the* question.
However, let us be aware of the outside biases that would influence
the answering of the question. In view of the above, we have
cause to be suspicious...
Gerald Owens
Owens@gatechowens@gatech.UUCP (Gerald R. Owens) (04/11/84)
I goofed on the mapping function of my previous article. it should have been abortion --> having slaves. because all of the proposed losses to the slave owners would have been avoided by HAVING slaves, just as all the proposed losses to the parents would have been avoided by HAVING an abortion. I think I lost count on the number of negations I used in my reasoning from analogy. Sorry for the confusion. At least my discussion at the end of the article made it clear what I meant. Gerald Owens Owens@gatech
tjt@kobold.UUCP (04/12/84)
Gerald Owens (gatech!owens) has claimed that a doctor would be
financially motivated to be in favor of abortion ("No abortion, no
fee"). Not only is this accusation repugnant and insulting to most
doctors (no, I'm not one), it ignores the fact that most doctors
performing abortions are obstetricians and gynecologists who would get
a much larger fee for prenatal care and delivery.
--
Tom Teixeira, Massachusetts Computer Corporation. Westford MA
...!{ihnp4,harpo,decvax}!masscomp!tjt (617) 692-6200 x275pmd@cbscc.UUCP (Paul Dubuc) (04/13/84)
[From Tom Teixeira:] >Gerald Owens (gatech!owens) has claimed that a doctor would be >financially motivated to be in favor of abortion ("No abortion, no >fee"). Not only is this accusation repugnant and insulting to most >doctors (no, I'm not one), it ignores the fact that most doctors >performing abortions are obstetricians and gynecologists who would get >a much larger fee for prenatal care and delivery. I think you might have a hard time supporting the claim that abortionists make less money than OB GYNs that don't do abortions. The fee of the latter group may be larger, but their service is rendered over a 9 month period. An abortion takes very little time or concern for the individual on the part of the doctor. Try getting one up at 2 AM to do an abortion. For the amount of actual work they do, I think abortionists come out way ahead. But don't believe me, read Dr. Bernard Nathanson's books "Aborting America" and "The Abortion Papers". He ought to know, he ran the largest abortion clinic in the U.S. and was co-founder of the NARAL. In particular, working in an abortion clinic is a very lucrative way for a new OB/GYN, just getting out of school with no practice, to get their start. A pro-life doctor would have a much harder time establishing a practice let alone making more money once they did. Paul Dubuc
tjt@kobold.UUCP (04/15/84)
Gerald Owens (gatech!owens) claims "the vast majority of abortions were
taking place in high volume abortion clinics". I don't dispute this
but fail to see how this can be construed as evidence for the doctors
acting under a profit motive. I expect the vast majority of
childbirths to take place in high volume city or university hospitals,
with the remainder performed by doctors who "cater to a higher paying
clientele". I stand by my claim that abortion is less profitable for a
doctor than childbirth.
--
Tom Teixeira, Massachusetts Computer Corporation. Westford MA
...!{ihnp4,harpo,decvax}!masscomp!tjt (617) 692-6200 x275liz@umcp-cs.UUCP (04/17/84)
Sorry folks, but abortion does bring a lot of money to those doctors who work in abortion clinics full time. Even though it is true that an ob/gyn's fee for delivery is ususally something like $1000 while a suction abortion costs more like $200-300, you have to take into account the time he spends at each. A single doctor at an abortion clinic can perform far more abortions per day than he could deliver babies. Also, according to my roommate who is a nurse, it is common for new ob/gyn's to start out by working at an abortion clinic for a while because it is the easiest way to clear out a large school debt. Another source of income at the clinics is what they get for selling the aborted fetuses both for scientific research and for use in cosmetics. Let me say that not all doctors who perform abortions do it full time or are out to make money. I'm just saying that it does happen -- and too often! There probably are abortion clinics who counsel their patients well and really care about them, but there are many that upon giving a woman a positive pregnancy test result, will immediately ask when she wants to be scheduled for an abortion. They all offer free pregnancy tests as a way of getting patients for abortions. I know of at least one case in which a clinic wanted a woman to get an abortion. When this woman came to the center I work at, and we ran a pregnancy test on her, we got a negative result. This woman wasn't even pregnant! She was rather upset. According to the director of our center, this happens too often (although for it to happen at all is too often). -Liz Allen -- Univ of Maryland, College Park MD Usenet: ...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz Arpanet: liz%umcp-cs@CSNet-Relay