ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow) (03/21/84)
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This argument, "abortion is murder, therefore to permit abortion
is to sanction all murder and the Nazi of your choice", is specious.
So too its corollary: abortion will lead to euthenasia.
It's like the gun lobby's argument that gun registration will lead to
their confiscation. I'm not even for gun control (I trust my government
even less than my neighbors) and I can see the stupidity of that logic.
We humans are quite capable of distinguishing abortion from killing
(already-born) people. Indeed, we have even distinguished it in law.
I think Sophie was trying to make this point, if a bit overzealously.
My own view is that "leads to" is a product of the rational mind only.
It takes no precedent to start killing real people. Conversely and
more important, the establishment of precedents has never prevented it.
For thousands of years, if times got a trifle rough in Europe, they'd
kill the Jews. Sometimes they'd even dream up a reason. You pro-lifers
cite the Holocaust as if it were scripture, but surely you realize that
if people can do that, they can, and do, do anything. The only variable
is how bad things have to get. No "leads to", except perhaps as Sophie
mentioned, in what we learn when we're young. Abortion doesn't "lead
to" anything, except abortion. So...
Is the fetus really "human", and if so when? Well, all you moralists
and metaphysicians out there in anti-abortion land, why not work on
"How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" It's just as
decidable, and much less painful for all involved. Really, if you're
going to legislate profoundly consequential morality, it behooves
you at least to practice.
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